Fate:It's Written In The Stars
by Zosie
Summary: Once upon a time, a small boy with a bad father saved a baby girl from certain death. She and her friend were to pop up in his future. Edward had a dark tragic start in life and now is a dark and moody emo student with no friends other than his fostered siblings. Bella is new to Forks High, and fascinated at first sight. Can she save him? (Was called The Striped Pajamas)
1. Chapter 1

**I closed one story so now I can start another, right? LOL. This prologue is dark, the rest of the story is going to be normal, it's just to establish why Edward is like he is. Warning, horrible father alert, murder.**

Chapter One

_The Past_

"_Don't forget to cry, boy," the father reminded his small son as he pushed him towards the door._

_The child concentrated on the beating he had received just the night before, the scars and bruises still ached, he had cried most of the night. Surely he could muster up a few more tears._

"_Cry, I said," the man growled and slapped the child across his head._

_The tears flowed freely now._

"_Good. Don't forget, check they are asleep before you unlock the door."_

_The small, scrawny boy knocked timidly and wiped away some of the steady flow._

"_Why, where did you spring from? Are you lost?" the pretty lady asked, ushering him inside._

_A man sat at the dining table, eating his dinner. It smelled delicious and it had been well over a day since the child had eaten, and then only what he could find in the trashcan in the city limits. His stomach growled loudly in hunger._

_The lady knelt and wiped away his tears with her linen handkerchief, and smiled kindly at him, far more kindly than anyone else ever had in his entire life._

"_Do you have a name, son?" the man asked._

"_Shush now, he is starving, and lost, let me feed him at least then I think a nice hot bath would be in order. Now, eat up, lad, I hope you like chicken."_

_The boy grabbed the chicken drumstick like it was all that stood between him and starvation, and the rich brown gravy dripped down his chin. Mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, he had never experienced a bounty like this before._

_He shuddered a little. If they could afford to eat this well, then they probably owned all sorts of things his father could steal and sell on._

_As the child's plate emptied, the man at the table pushed his own chair back and patted his stomach. He was starting to get a bit of a paunch but no wonder, if the pretty lady always cooked this good._

"_Now, it's time for some answers," the man said, not unkindly._

"_You won't even wait and let him have desert?" the lady asked pleadingly._

"_Enough's enough, woman. You can bathe him as soon as he answers my questions then we will consider if he has earned desert. Do you like apple pie with cream and ice cream, boy?"_

_The child's eyes opened wider. Cream and ice cream? Both together? Who ever heard of such a thing?_

"_I truly don't know, sir, I have never eaten cream or ice cream but it looks good," the boy answered._

"_You have eaten apple pie though?" the lady asked._

"_Yes Ma'am, the diner in Ann Street serves apple pie, I always look for the apple pie leftovers when I'm finding my dinner."_

_The lady looked shocked, and pained._

_Nobody had ever cared where the child got his food supply from so he was mystified why she reacted so. It was a nice diner, nicer than the ones in the city proper where the chef would yell at him and tell him to F off and not come back in case he disturbed the important people dining inside the warmth, and hazily lit dining area._

_No, the Ann Street diner was the best place to eat. The girl with the fuzzy hair even kept aside half eaten meals and put them in a box for him sometimes so he didn't have to dig through the potato peelings and spoiled fruit to find something worth eating. When she was on shift, she left the white Styrofoam container balancing on the corner of the skip._

_Often there was apple pie crusts, though the diners always ate most of the fruit filling and the cream or ice cream, even that diner didn't serve both._

"_What's your name, son?" the man asked again._

_The child rubbed his eyes and tried to remember what name he was meant to use in this village. It changed all the time, it was important not to leave clues, his father had drummed into his tired and confused skull._

"_Mike," he whispered._

"_Well Mike, where do you live?" the man asked._

"_Not here, we live in the city most of the time," he answered in a small frightened voice. He hated this part. The meals were always the pay off for him but remembering what he was supposed to say was often hard. He hoped the man wouldn't look into his eyes and see the lies there._

"_Where are your parents?" the man persisted._

"_My mother died, my father was supposed to come out and get me after he went to the drinking place and I think he might have forgot."_

_The couple exchanged glances._

"_How did you get all the way out here? Why didn't you wait outside the bar?" the lady asked._

"_There was a man, I didn't like him, he tried to make me get in his car. He smelled funny, like whiskey. My Dad likes whiskey, he smells like whiskey most nights," the child said. That was true, he had no fear they would think him lying now._

"_Then how did you get out here?" she asked kindly._

"_I walked, Ma'am," he answered._

"_All this way? You must be exhausted. Come upstairs and have a nice warm bath and then we can find something to dress you in for bed and I will wash these clothes of yours, hopefully they will be dry by morning. My husband will take you into town to see the sheriff, and we will find that father of yours."_

_Or hopefully the sheriff will call in Social Services because clearly this child would do better in a foster home, not in the careless hands of the man unworthy to call himself father._

_She washed his skin gently, hiding her shock and horror at seeing the scars, some so old to be thick and white lines, some fresh, still red, interlaced with bruises, purple, mauve, yellow, various sizes and ages._

_He had clearly been beaten regularly, maybe since babyhood._

_She clenched her jaw determinedly. The sheriff was a personal friend, maybe they could convince him to lock up the father or at least run him out of town, and they could give the child a home themselves. She was a foster mother, just since her own baby was born, she hadn't taken in any children needing her care._

_That would change._

_Her daughter would benefit from having an older brother._

_She dried his skin gently but he never flinched, not even when she accidentally touched the worst of the fresh scars._

_She pulled onto his body her smallest Tshirt that she had worn back in college before this new body of hers had developed, her waist thicker now since the pregnancy, of that she was convinced. And now the new pregnancy would add further inches. She smiled a secret smile._

_The Tshirt hung to his knees and she smiled and kissed the now clean forehead._

"_Come back downstairs and eat your apple pie then you can sleep up here in the guest room," she said kindly._

_The apple pie was amazing, warm, he had never eaten it warm before, and it was not all crust like he was used to. Creamy tasty apples, cooked to perfection, just sweet enough to meld with the tang, and the cream and ice cream were amazing. He ate slowly, wanting the sensation of having food such as this in his mouth last as long as possible._

_He doubted he would ever eat this well again, ever._

"_Thank you, that was the best food I ever ate," he exclaimed honestly as he scraped the last morsels from his plate._

"_You are very welcome, Mike. I think we have just enough leftover for you to eat for morning tea before you go see the sheriff," she said with a smile and a wink._

_The child's face dropped, he knew there would be no morning snack, no visit to anyone. They would be long gone by then._

_The lady took him upstairs and tucked the blankets around his small cold body._

"_Goodnight, Mike, sleep well," she said quietly, kissing his cheek._

_He lay in the darkness and held his fingers on the spot where she had kissed him._

_Had anyone ever kissed him before? He didn't think so. Maybe his Momma had, but she had died long before he had formed any memories of her. Not her face, or her skin, or her voice,or her smell, he had nothing of her._

_His father once said mid beating he reminded him too much of her, of the dead Momma, because he had her hair, and her eyes and her smile._

_He tried to never smile again in front of the father, that was not difficult. The hair he hid under an old grey knitted cap that he had found on the road once, outside a schoolyard. There was nothing he could do about the eyes though._

_The house settled and the boy lay in waiting, fear gripping his insides. Father was out there, waiting and he would not he happy if the boy didn't unlock the door and let him in. He feared for the couple that had taken him in. His father was not fussed whether he left them asleep or killed them if they awoke. Or sometimes even if they didn't wake, he would shoot them anyway._

'_Mike' decided he had to do something. Nobody had ever given him apple pie warm, with cream and ice cream. Nobody had ever sighed over his battered body, or kissed him before. He would warn them, maybe the man had a gun and could shoot his father and end this now._

_He snuck down the hallway and stopped in surprise at the gentle sounds of a baby babbling in her crib. He snuck into the room and looked between the bars. She was sweet, and smelt clean and like a flower almost._

_Her eyes caught his and she smiled, and reached a hand out to touch him._

"_Hello, baby, what's your name? You are lucky, having nice people for parents. I wish they were my parents," he told the small child and she grinned a toothless grin at him._

_He picked up the pink pacifier and handed it to her and she took it and placed it in her mouth, sucking noisily._

_He walked from the room, even more determined. HE would not be hurting this little flower of a baby._

_He knocked timidly on the bedroom door. The man opened it. He was wearing blue and white striped pajamas, to this day he remembered the pajamas. He had never seen an adult in striped pajamas before. They looked new._

"_Please sir, do you have a gun?" he asked hopefully._

"_A gun? Why would you want to know that, boy?"_

"_He's out there, he sends me inside to unlock the door for him once everyone is asleep then he comes inside and robs everything you have worth taking, and sometimes..."_

"_Sometimes what, son?" the man asked as he crouched to squat at the boys eye level._

"_Sometimes he does bad stuff. Shooting."_

_The man ruffled the child's hair._

"_Well we will see about that. Call the sheriff, dear, it seems we have a burglar about to strike."_

"_Please don't tell him I told," the boy begged, reality hitting suddenly. This betrayal would earn him more than a few licks of the belt._

"_Don't worry, you are safe with us," the man assured him._

_The lady switched on the light and reached for the phone and as she dialled, the boy stiffened at the sound of breaking glass down below._

_Daddy had gotten tired of waiting, maybe he knew what his son had done._

_The child ran silently to the room the baby was in, and climbed into the crib. Silver catches sat at either end of one side and he flicked them and dropped the barrier. He climbed out and lifted the baby, taking care to grab the pink plastic pacifier._

_Angry voices, yelling, screaming, shots._

_He ran into the hallway and looked up, there it was. The string attached to the ladder than would give them access to the attic._

_He lay the baby gently on the floor and grabbed the heavy chair covered in fabric and dragged it under the spot. The cord was just inches above his hands. He jumped and caught it by the very end and the ladder descended with a thump._

_He pushed the chair back where it came from, leave no clues his father always said._

_He lifted the baby and awkwardly climbed the thin treads of the ladder and lay the baby in the little boxed in space in front of the small attic window. Once there had been a lid to cover this storage area but it was long gone._

_Carefully he placed the pacifier in her mouth and she played with the Tshirt he wore, pulling the fabric towards her mouth._

_He moved back a little._

"_I have to go. Please stay quiet. If you stay quiet he may not find you, and you don't want him to find you, baby." He kissed the top of her head, as the lady had kissed him when she had come back into the room when he had pretended to be asleep._

_Down the ladder again, he pushed with all his might and the steps retreated back into the ceiling._

_There was not a lot of noise now, someone was cursing under their breath, and metal clanked on metal._

_He snuck down the stairs praying it would be the man and the nice lady, just upset they had killed his father._

"_Where the hell were you, you little shit," his father bellowed, slapping his cheek."Get this lot out into the truck."_

_The child took the sack and made for the doorway, squinting his eyes so he would not see them as he stepped over their legs. The pretty lady was facedown, thank God, her arms around the man in the striped pajamas. His face was surprisingly calm, and he looked like he was just sleeping. Almost. The splashes of red across the front of the pajamas told another story, this was not a sleep he would awaken from._

_The boy dragged the sack to the truck and heaved it into the tray. He wiped his brow and looked up at the tiny attic window and prayed the baby was asleep. Properly asleep, the kind of sleep you woke up from._

_He saw the lights before he heard the wail of the siren._

_He ran down the road as fast as his legs would carry him, waving frantically at the sheriff, he had to tell him to save the baby._

_The shot rang out into the silent night and the child fell._

_The sheriff called for back up and stopped, carefully alighting from his vehicle,kneeling behind the protection of the cruiser to check the child. Breathing, but so much blood._

"_The baby, save the baby. He killed the lady and the man in the striped pajamas. I hid the baby in the attic," the boy gasped then silence settled once again and his body relaxed._

_Blessed blackness took over, and he mouthed the words as he slid into the loving arms of oblivion._

"_Save the baby."_

**_As always, review if you want more, I am never afraid to remove anything nobody much likes._**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for the reviews, thanks for giving this a chance. Keep reviewing if you want me to keep writing it.**

The Striped Pajamas

Chapter 2

The New Girl

"Don't even waste your time," Jessica advised the new girl as she caught her staring at the gorgeous but completely unsuitable Edward Cullen.

"What's his story?" Bella asked.

"Oh the usual, been through foster homes since he was a kid, someone said he killed someone when he was like six or something, I don't know if it's true but better safe than sorry, right?"

"That's the usual? I don't believe everything I hear, Forks tends to be the type of place everyone is willing to pass on a rumor yet nobody bothers checking out the validity of it first," Bella replied.

"He's older than us anyway, he was home schooled and didn't like the kind of jobs he could get so he is only here to get the official qualifications to apply for college, thus he is older than the rest of the class," Jess added. "Four years older. It's just weird having like, a man, in our class."

Forks High School.

Bella's first day.

She had finally convinced Charlie she did not need to stay at the small private girl's only school in Port Angeles where she had attended since she was five years old. She hated it there, and as she became a teenager, it had just gotten worse and worse. Cattiness, bitch fights, girls stealing other girls clothes, money, shoes, boyfriends. Then there were the 'others', the besties, the girls who kissed each other every time they met even if it was only five minutes since their last encounter, and the 'I love you's ' and the hugging and hand holding. Lesbians she could tolerate easily but this pretend gay shit was just freaking annoying.

They were all too spoiled and too rich and Bella could not relate at all.

She knew Charlie battled and worked overtime to afford the school fees as well as the cost of Renee's rehabilitation and finally she had convinced him it was pointless, stupid and a complete waste of money.

Already she liked the girls here a lot more than her former peers.

Bella looked again at the coppery head of hair, and the long fingers unconsciously raking through it as the boy read the book in his hand. It was as if he sat alone, across the far side of the room, even though there were four others at his table. He didn't appear to acknowledge their presence in any way. He seemed lost in the story, his other hand idly crumbling the bagel on the plate in front of him.

He was stunningly good looking, she was surprised a few rumors were enough to keep the girls of this school away from such beauty.

She was unafraid of rumors, there had been plenty about her in the last school, the absence of an at home mother in her life had caused all sorts of speculation.

She was the child of two gay men, carried by a surrogate. Pity Charlie lived alone then.

She had been kidnapped at a young age and was being raised by her kidnappers.

She was the illegitimate spawn of someone rich and famous and now lived in school breaks with her uncle, Charlie Swan, Chief Of Police.

Rich girls had too overactive imaginations and not enough real work to fill their brains with common sense.

Nobody accepted the truth, she had been born here in Forks, to Charlie and his wife Renee, and her mother had done a flit by night when Bella was practically a newborn.

Renee had then lived with Phil Dwyer, a young up and coming baseball player who was attracting attention from major league scouts for his superior hitting skills, when both adults were in a car accident, and Phil was killed. Renee came back, tail between her legs. She had problems coping with the real world and spent most of Bella's childhood in a rest home for the mentally weary.

Charlie had battled to raise a baby alone and was considerably relieved when she reached school age and he could ship her off to Port Angeles and the all girl's boarding school. School breaks were his only concern after that, her day to day care was the school's responsibility and he was willing to work all the hours God sent to pay for them to raise her right. It had seemed to be the right solution at first, she had skipped ahead , and shone in their excellent tutoring programme.

Maybe had he fathered a son it might have been easier, but a girl? What did he know about girls? Only that he had failed the one he married so badly she hadn't wanted to stay with him, even after the baby had arrived.

Of course, once Bella became a teen she started rebelling and finally she had refused point blank to return for her Junior Year of High School and he had relented and let her remain living at home with him, just attending Forks High as a day student, which was all they offered.

It was working out surprisingly well, he was really getting to know his own flesh and blood in a way that had never happened in the vacation times, when he usually sent her to one relative or another, seeing he did not have the luxury of taking a break from work while she was at home.

His three weeks of vacation time were saved for Christmases, he always wanted to give her a good Christmas so she had some high spots in her childhood to remember when she was grown up and moved on. Renee came home randomly when she felt strong enough, but she always, always came home for a week at Christmas, and the other two weeks father and daughter went camping or to California to get some serious sun, or skiing in the mountains. Whatever Bella wanted each year. More and more often, Renee came with them and they all enjoyed the short pretence they were still a normal family.

Christmas dinner in the diner, a tree from the forest, the boxes of decorations dragged out year after year, they dressed the tree together, and he always added the last touch, the fairy lights that twinkled and burned out regularly.

Bella's yearly chore had been to make a new angel for the top of the tree and Charlie always relegated last years angel to the mantel over the fireplace in the sitting room. It had started in her first year of school, she came home clutching the white cardboard and tinsel figure with half paper doilies for wings in her hand and handed it over proudly, and Charlie had lifted her five year old self to place it at the very top.

"It's beautiful, Bella," he had assured her.

"It's Momma," she had replied.

Every year another new angel, every year another old angel placed in the line up on the mantel. It was a testimony of how her craft skills had changed and improved as she grew.

The final angel had graced the tree for four Christmases in a row now. Bella had taken an old photo of Renee on her wedding day and cut out the face and stuck it on the newest angel and both knew somehow the tradition was over, Angel Renee would forever smile down at them from that Christmas onwards.

Charlie loved that angel and she alone was permitted to grace the mantel all year round, instead of living inside one of the cardboard boxes dumped in the dusty attic. It always made Renee smile when she saw it there, so those smiles alone were enough reward.

His waist had increased in girth since he had feasted on his daughter's cooking. Like her mother before her, she just had the knack of producing the most amazingly tasty meals, yet they were simple enough.

It was the apple pie with cream and ice cream that was doing this, making the waistband of his pants feel smaller and his belts suddenly needing a new hole.

He should get some exercise, he knew that, but when did one fit in exercise around life? He had his job, his fishing, his sports games on the flatscreen, visiting his wife or caring for her when she was here, both duties he was glad to carry out.

His weekly appointment at the diner every Thursday night where he ate like a king yet now the food there had been eclipsed by his own daughter's skills. She cooked better than Waylon, and that was saying something. He knew he had to persist and give her one night off though.

In no time she would be dating boys and needing that free night each week.

She rarely dined with him at the diner, she said she enjoyed one night of fasting, so he didn't argue. He mainly liked coming to the diner simply to spend time around the people he used to dine with nightly, before Bella came home to stay.

It was his night of hearing new gossip, though he would deny listening in as the ladies in town chatted and the men rolled their eyes and scowled and ate hurriedly, wanting to get home to their flatscreens.

By the time Charlie left, there were only ladies left, all huddled around a couple of booths together, talking loudly about who had a new car, frock, baby, job or boyfriend. He stayed as long as he could, you never knew what was helpful to the job. The reason Dan had smashed his own house up was now clear, it seemed his quiet and non complaining wife Lydia had been taking comfort in the arms of that new travelling salesman, and her 'disappearance' was no longer suspicious.

She disappeared the day the traveller left town.

Join the dots.

Had he not overheard the ladies network discussing how she chose to walk out with nothing at all so Dan could never accuse her of stealing from him, he would have wasted man hours investigating her absence.

The travelling salesman had a van full of stylish ladies apparel, he was sure Lydia was better dressed since she left than all the years she had resided here.

"How was your first week?" Charlie asked, watching his daughter finish her homework and pack her bookbag so she could enjoy the weekend with no schoolwork to bind her down.

"So far I have had more happy moments than all the years at the Ladies College," she replied. "I went to see Mom, she was happy, smiling, it was nice."

She placed his meal in front of him and served her own, and sat opposite him at the small dining table in the kitchen.

"Dad, what do you know about the Cullen's?" she asked.

"Oh here we go, this town has nothing better to do than idly gossip about the best thing that ever happened to it. Dr Cullen is an amazing doctor, he could work at any hospital in any city but he chooses to come here because that pretty wife of his likes country living, and hates the hustle and bustle of the city."

"How long have they lived here?" she asked.

"A couple of years. All those teenagers, I fully expected to be called out all hours when they played up or held drinking parties or whatever, and actually I have more trouble with the likes of Mike Newton and Tyler Crowley. Those two had better stop their underage drinking, especially before driving, or they will find themselves without the cars their parents bought them."

"Do you know anything about Edward Cullen?" she questioned.

"Now which one is he? Not the big one with the muscles and black curls? He is too old for you, Bella. He is a senior, you are a junior."

"That's Emmett, not Edward. Edward is the tall one with reddish hair and green eyes," she explained, even though she knew Edward was indeed the older, and her father raised an eyebrow.

She knew his eye color?

"Well, I know they are all fostered. I know Carlisle and Esme lost their only child as a baby and they chose to create a family from a child who needed their care, not from infancy but from early childhood. I believe Edward was their first . Then they took in teenagers. Emmett then that Jasper was third then the girl with the big eyes, Alison?"

"Alice. I met her this week. She is nice. Crazy maybe, but really nice."

"I like her, she will be a good friend for you," Charlie agreed. He didn't bother to add, Alice Cullen had been a patient at the same home his wife rested in. She had experienced some horrific childhood and only recently had she been released and started at the high school.

"There's a rumor Edward killed someone when he was a child?" Bella offered.

"That sounds like the kind of dramatic tall story Jessica Stanley's mother would come up with. When the Cullen's first came here Sarah Stanley was telling everyone they were a coven of witches and that she personally knew they dabbled in human sacrifice. You would think if they were sacrificing humans they would choose the most annoying gossiper in town as their first victim but sadly, no."

He sighed and undid the button on his trousers. Maybe it would cost him more to replace his wardrobe than the school fees had. If she kept feeding him like this, he would be the typical chubby doughnut eating cop everyone expected him to be. Yet nary a doughnut would cross his lips.

"I would say ignore everything you hear and get to know the lad and find out for yourself. He could do with some friends, he always seems to be alone when his family are not around," Charlie commented.

Charlie had seen him for years in the early mornings and late evenings, running along the tracks that bordered the forest. Always alone, always a single figure silhouetted against the backdrop of green.

"He runs," he informed his daughter. "Mornings and nights, he runs. Right along Bear Pathway and back. Usually at twilight, you never know, you may run into him if you take up the sport yourself."

The idea of Bella doing any sport was laughable, she was small and slim but none of that was down to exercise, she perceived herself as too clumsy to join in teams so a solitary pursuit like running might just capture her imagination. Her body shape was totally due to genes, Renee had a similar body when Charlie met her. She had increased in weight a little after the pregnancy but he had not been privileged to see her as the weight dropped off. She was as slim and shapely now as she had been as a teen. Of course she had never been able to have another child, even when having one to Phil had been her dream. The miscarriage had happened at Phil's funeral, doubling the pain and anguish and pushing Renee over that line between coping and insanity.

Charlie had identified bodies before but the state Phil had been in had haunted his dreams ever since he had been called to Phoenix to id him. Renee had been in no fit state and Phil had no family, so the chore had fallen onto Charlie.

The accident had brought his daughter back to him but he had never wished his wife pain, even though she had shattered all his plans to be the best father and husband ever seen in Forks before. He just hadn't known what Renee wanted, that was the problem. She hated Forks, she hated the small towness of the place, the gossip, the women adding up the months on their fingers. Bella had been born exactly nine months to the day from their wedding.

This had not alleviated the gossips, they had chosen to believe the baby was overdue and not the truth, she was conceived on their honeymoon probably the first night, the very first time they had made love.

Renee had always been keen for pre marital sex but Charlie had been determined to preserve his fiancee's reputation and had waited, somehow, hard as it had been with a naked and very eager Renee trying to break down his defences. That had been the sole reason they advanced the date for the wedding but one could not put a wedding date forward without the obvious conclusion being reached.

He hadn't cared, he assumed when the baby took at least a full nine months, as she must, it would end speculation but no.

"So, she is quite pretty even though she stayed in the oven those few extra weeks," Mrs Stanley had uttered the first time Renee took Bella out in her new pram.

Charlie had only been surprised he didn't have to arrest his own wife for common assault but Renee had refrained from even slapping the woman.

She had ranted and seethed for hours that night and unfortunately for Charlie, the broken nights and lack of sleep had chosen that moment to decide his body had to catch up, and when Renee heard his snores, she had decided her husband was not the kind of man she wanted to be with.

She wanted some knight in shining armor who would rush out and defend her name and reputation. Slay the rumor monger, put her in her place, brand her the unlikable bitch she was, and make his wife shine for being as good as she really was.

It had been all over bar the shouting, and once Bella slept through the night, Renee had started going to the only bar in town, inflaming yet another story about her behaviour and eventually she decided she had already been tarred as a cheater, she may as well do the crime.

Phil had been in town winding up his grandparents estate and next thing, Charlie was down one wife and daughter, and the gossip really began in earnest.

Well, Renee had paid for her 'crime', and in the most horrible way.

xxx

Bella tied her laces and flexed her feet. Running shoes came in so many styles and prices, but she was not about to pay the ridiculous charges the Newton's stuck on their known brands. Made in sweatshops by children earning five cents a week or something, there was no way Bella was buying into that atrocity. Plain white runners from the department store in Port Angeles were good enough for her. Made in the good old U S of A.

Plain but practical.

Like she was.

She looked out the window, the sun was sinking fast and the cloud cover had lifted for once.

As the light faded, Bella began her first circuit of Bear Pathway. She saw him long before he saw her. His copper hair and his six foot three frame was easy to detect as he ran towards her, whereas the shrubs by the curve in the pathway may well have hidden all five foot three and a quarter inches of her.

Bella smiled as he approached and saw his eyes narrow, and the look of almost panic as he slowed and tried to look the other way, as if he had not seen her.

"Hi, nice night for it," she said brightly as he almost reached her.

He stopped, and scragged that wonderful hair that she longed to scrag herself. He looked confused, almost surprised, like he had thought himself invisible maybe.

"I'm Bella Swan, and you are Edward Cullen."

He looked around, maybe he still imagined she was talking to someone else.

"You are the son of Esme and Dr Carlisle Cullen, I am the daughter of Chief of Police Charlie Swan and his wife Renee."

Edward remained silent, his eyes wide with confusion.

"You have three siblings, I am an only child."

Nothing.

"Well, nice chatting to you, next time let me get a word in edgeways, it's never polite to hog the whole conversation," she said, moving past him.

He laughed.

She turned and slowed.

"So he can laugh but can he speak?" she asked.

"Sorry, I'm not used to people acknowledging I exist, sometimes I really wonder if I do," he said.

"If you are a figment of my imagination, then why don't I imagine you in my bed, not in such a public place?" she questioned.

"Well I do apologise, I shall try harder," he grinned.

"Third window on the right, I shall leave it open for you, come up and see me sometime," she answered, winking and giving him her best smile. She turned and continued on her run, leaving him open mouthed and baffled.

Maybe Forks was not going to be a total yawnfest after all.


	3. Chapter 3

The Striped Pajamas

Chapter 3

Edward lay back against the headboard of his bed and inhaled deeply. He should give these up, but most nights his cigarettes were his best friend and only companion. He exhaled and found his lips had involuntarily formed a smile as he remembered Bella Swan and her conversation, more with herself than with him.

He had been at Forks for three years and nobody had spoken to him anything like the way she had. He knew she had been at school a whole week, that was more than long enough to have been fully informed of the rumours about him.

He had killed someone when he was a kid, he was a sex offender, he was a serial killer, he had offed his own parents. He had heard them all and never bothered to deny any of them or defend himself. He was pretty fucked up so what did it matter how that had come about? They were right to be wary of him, he was hardly friend material.

He should warn her, she had no idea what she was getting herself into, if she struck up a friendship with the most despised student at Forks High.

He tapped the ash into his ashtray and sighed.

If only, if fucking only.

He had never had a friend, and if he could choose any friend to have, it would be her. He had secretly watched her and admired the way she dismissed every word that sprung from the lips of Jessica Stanley, who must have been cloned from her mother, surely, no other mother and daughter had ever been that alike. Not just in looks, but in nature.

Who'd of thought the most nasty gossip in the state had an apprentice?

The woman would stop walking, come to a complete halt, if she saw him in town, and deliberately walk around him in an exaggerated semi circle, staring at him as if he was radioactive or carried the bubonic plague.

Then she would mutter loudly about how there was no justice, all the good and innocent citizens of Forks would be murdered in their beds at night, and she had warned them all, but nobody listened, nobody did anything about the likes of him walking the streets.

She had come a little too close to the truth. Innocents had died in their beds thanks to the blood that flowed through his veins. He may not have personally ever touched a gun or pulled the trigger but he had been an accessory to murder, more than once, before he even reached school age.

He had no choice, the psychiatrist had assured him over and over but Edward knew that was not true. He could have run away, God knows there were no benefits living with Edward Masen Snr, nothing good ever came from that man.

He could have stopped him, he could have warned them all, from the very first. A whole year the man had used him to gain entry to the houses.

At first all Edward knew was that he must unlock the front door, and once he did that, his father often put him in a big smelly potato sack and threw him on the floor in the cab of the truck and warned him to stay quiet, stay still, don't move or speak, and amazingly, sometimes Edward had fallen asleep. Maybe from a lack of oxygen?

He would wake when they were on the road again, the back of the truck piled high with various pieces of furniture, sacks of trophies and vases and pretty bone china, all soon sold on and the proceeds spent on whiskey.

If he was very good, he maybe got a small coin for himself and once he even had enough to buy a milkshake. That day had been the best day ever. He had walked into the diner instead of waiting at the backdoor, searching for scraps.

The girl with the frizzy hair had smiled and made his milkshake and it was so thick he could barely suck it through the straw. And she had taken his dollar and handed him back two fifty cent coins, and winked at him.

It had been kind of like Christmas, his first Christmas. She had given him a gift.

He had been buoyed up for a week and pulled the two coins out of his pocket many times a day, just to make sure it was real, and they were still there.

Of course that week had changed into the very worst, well, worst but for one.

That week had been the first time he knew his father didn't just steal, he murdered as well. The old lady lived all alone but she still took him in and fed him. A sandwich, it had been a sandwich, with chicken and lettuce. And she made him cocoa. She told him she once had a son just like him and that boy loved his cocoa. She showed him a framed photo of herself and her husband and son, but she was way older now, he wasn't even sure that lady in the picture could have ever been her.

She had been asleep, Edward had checked, he had even spoken to her out loud and she hadn't moved or opened her eyes, so he went downstairs and dragged a chair over and stood on it to release the catch.

His father had grabbed him and told him to wait, he was big enough to help, so he had waited and dragged the first sack to the truck. He was almost back inside when he heard the shot.

He had screamed and of course, that had earned him a whipping even though the farmhouse was far too isolated for anyone to have heard him anyway.

"What happened, did she shoot you?" he had asked hopefully.

"No kid, I decided the old dame needed a little sleep aid to keep her snug as a bug in a rug in her bed, now we can take our time. What do you think of this clock? I know it looks old but sometimes old can be good. Could be an antique. Could be worth a bit."

"Is she okay?" he had whispered in fear. His father had warned him never to ever touch a gun, guns killed. Had his father killed the old lady?

"Sure, she is happy now, up there with the angels."

"With Momma?" he had asked and earned a slap to the head.

"Don't mention her name, that woman was a saint, you never say her name when we are working. She wouldn't like this stuff, what we have to do."

He had waited until his father went down into the old shed in the yard to see if there were any tools worth taking, and he had run upstairs and checked the old lady but he knew even then, that she was dead.

He remembered a story she had told him as she bathed him earlier that evening, about how when her husband died she put pennies on his eyes to pay the boatman.

He hadn't got any pennies but he took the two fifty cent coins out of his pocket and lay them gently on her closed eyelids.

He hoped the boatman would accept the fare even if it was the wrong amount.

His father had never known what he had done, and Edward had been too traumatised at seeing a dead body to ever speak of it himself.

That had been the worst week until the last job.

He still wondered if the sheriff had saved the baby. It had not been easy dragging her from the crib and up that ladder, it was lucky she had been wearing a pink flannel sleepsuit and he had been able to grip it tightly and keep a firm hold on her.

Nobody ever told him anything. He had woken in a hospital ward filled with other boys and he had watched and envied them when their parents came to visit and brought them fruit and toys and cards.

His only visitor had been Esme, she started coming in every day about two weeks after he arrived. She had sat beside him and talked and told him he was going to go live with her and her husband, who was his doctor.

She had brought him fruit and a small GI Joe figure that he still cherished. His first ever toy.

They were about to move house, this town was too hot and dry for her, so they had sold their house and were off to Boston. Edward was released and off they went, his hands firmly held by Esme on one side and Carlisle on the other.

Despite the rumours, he was one of the lucky few who got to stay with the same foster parents their entire childhood, he lived with them still.

At 21, he should be making his way independently by now but his parents were in no hurry, they liked him living there .

Their move to Forks had promised to be a fresh start, nobody at his school in Boston had ever liked him so Esme had homeschooled him to the best of her ability.

The arrival of a teenaged Emmett then Jasper had changed the family dynamics, but everyone had been sure he could cope and siblings would be good for him.

Carlisle had even pulled strings and gotten him in Forks High despite his age, so he could get the qualifications he needed to go to college.

Alice had been the latest arrival, Carlisle was her doctor and when she recovered enough to leave the rest hospital, he had opened his door and heart to her, as had Esme.

Jasper had opened his bed, but that was their business.

Edward didn't condemn them at all, in fact he wished he could have someone to sleep in his bed with him. A pair of comforting arms, what could possibly be any better?

That would never happen. Despite Beauty and The Beast, girls did not fall in love with monsters.

Girls didn't even talk to him, they talked about him, they giggled behind their hands at him but until tonight, no girl had ever treated him like a normal person.

Emmett's new girlfriend Rose thought he was a freak and he was not so impressed with her either. He had heard boys talking about her in the changerooms, she had quite a reputation. Her last boyfriend had been Royce, head of the football team, but Emmett was fast becoming a contender to take over that role as well.

Edward relived the conversation with Bella Swan in his mind. It was not like he had many memories he wanted to keep but this was definitely one.

She was different, that was for sure.

He frowned as he recalled her invitation for him to climb in her bedroom window, that had been a joke right? No sensible girl would invite him inside, alone.

He sighed and decided to just take another quick run, it would settle him and allow him to sleep. His feet knew the way, they dragged him as if attracted by a large and powerful magnet and he stood in the driveway and breathed out a sigh of relief. No police cruiser, the Chief was on duty then. He walked to the back of the house and glanced up.

Third window from the right. It was open, despite the distinct chill in the air. And it did have a very convenient apple tree right there beside it. He was just going to peep inside and make sure she got home safely, he assured himself. It was softly raining, she may have drowned in a puddle or something.

The room was barely illuminated, her bedside lamp had a scarf thrown over it to subdue the glow to soft rose.

He carefully pulled the curtain aside and just looked in, he was not crossing that windowsill.

"What kept you?" she asked, startling him.

"I..I'm just checking you made it home okay," he stuttered, what the hell was he even thinking?

"Well come check me over for bruises and broken bones if you like," she offered.

He frowned and let the curtain drop.

"Oh Edward, don't be such a wuss, I was only teasing. Come in out of the rain and talk a while. I don't bite."

He slowly edged a foot into the room, then steadied himself and pulled the other foot in to join it. Bella tossed him a towel and he dried the water from his hair and face and when he was done she grabbed the towel back and tossed it over the back of the chair at her desk.

"So, what's the answer to question 53 in Algebra? I will be stuffed if I can work it out," she said. "You on the other hand must have repeated often enough to know every answer to every question."

"I haven't actually repeated before, I just enrolled because Esme was not a qualified tutor and I need two years at an approved school to get the qualifications for college."

"Well, you look kind of smart, so what's the answer?"

She patted the bed and he walked towards her and sat down beside her as indicated.

"Okay, this is what you are doing wrong, the _a _is equal to half the value of _x minus y_ over the value of the square root."

"Gah, I just can't imagine any scenario where my life will depend on knowing crap like that," she stated. "It's not like my future boss will suddenly decide he needs to know the value of _a_. If he does, I will google it."

Edward couldn't help grinning.

"So, what does Edward Cullen do at nght? Going on your rep, I will guess mugging old ladies, visiting strip clubs or sucking the blood from human corpses. Which is it?"

"Oh, strip clubs if those are the choices," he smiled.

"Yeah well I never quite got it. What's the point of getting all hot and bothered over some naked lady you cannot touch, by law?"

"No idea, shall I ask Emmett? He and Jas went to one once."

"Why didn't you go?" she asked.

"The White Stripes were playing in Seattle, like naked ladies could be better than that. Mosh pit, front line. Awesome."

"So, what's the truth, are Jack and Meg sister and brother really? They act a little too friendly if you get my drift. But then, I guess some families are close."

"They were married, Jack took her surname, and didn't want to give it back after their divorce so he told some reporter they were siblings. Awkward when the sex tape of them popped up at Youtube."

Bella grinned.

"Good old Youtube. I swear the only good thing the Internet provides is easy at home access to porn."

"And that's not enough for you?" he queried.

"Maybe. Maybe one day I shall make my own porn and launch it for the pervs to watch. Credit cards only."

"Be sure to give me the heads up when you do that," he chuckled.

She swiped at him with her pillow, then hugged it to her chest when he dodged it.

"So, you play piano and guitar my sources tell me. Play me something."

He pulled out the lining in his jean pockets.

"Darn, I thought I put my grand piano and acoustic guitar in there, they must have fallen out, maybe when I climbed the tree."

"I have a guitar, you idiot, that's it there in the corner."

Edward turned and picked up the silver metal instrument.

"Beautiful. Resonator, round neck, they don't play as well as an average acoustic guitar if you play them conventionally, but have you got a slide? I love playing them with a slide."

"Metal or glass?" she asked, and tossed both to him , along with a box of thumb and finger picks that he put on.

Edward lay the instrument flat across his knees and started playing, sliding the steel up and down, bringing out the sweetest sounds.

"You don't strike me as a dobro player," he commented.

"Me, I don't know which end to hold. My sort of one time stepfather owned it and my Mom wanted me to keep it, so I did. I read all the info on how to play it but it seems like a guy thing."

"Rubbish, I could teach you. I taught Alice, she is about the size of a fairy and she can bring out a tune."

"Really? It would thrill my Mom if I could play just one single melody on it. Something easy," she begged.

"Not a problem. What does she like, Hawaiian? Country?"

"I believe Phil played strictly country. The only non- sporting photo we have of him has him in cowboy boots and a stetson."

Edward nodded and played several melodies as she listened in awe.

The sound of a car door slamming stopped him dead, and he handed her the guitar and made for the window.

"It appears that may be my cue to exit, stage right," he chuckled. "Don't let him shoot me, okay? Been there, done that."

He stepped from the window and Bella closed it behind him and lay innocently on her bed.

She listened as Charlie hurried up the staircase and threw her door open.

"What the hell? How did you learn to play like that?" her father asked, confused. He edged around the bed, kicking up the dust ruffle. Nobody there. He accidentally bumped her closet door open. Nope. The window was fully closed as well.

"I'm having lessons. Edward Cullen offered to teach me. Seems really easy, I don't know why I didn't try earlier," Bella answered, standing to replace the guitar on it's stand.

"Amazing, wait until I tell Renee," he muttered, walking to his own bedroom.

"Ooops," whispered Bella.


	4. Chapter 4

**Edward's song: 'Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town' covered by The Killers, ( Kenny's voice is too mature),Youtube it. T****here are gorgeous stills of Brandon Flowers, the beautful, lickable lead singer and the first person who utters 'age inappropriate' gets a slap...he's 29, older than RPatz.(See, as a community service I am helping everyone here aged over 24 to start seeing 'older men',eventually we will be perving on Johnny Depp and he's even age appropriate.)**

**h t t p : / / y o u t u b e .com/watch?v=sp81g1WCrn8 remove the gaps**

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 4

Bella slammed the door of her rusty red truck and cringed as it groaned and shed little flakes of red rust onto the ground. Gotta stop hurting the truck. It may be a relic but it was all she had. It had to last until she saved up enough funds to replace it with something younger than her grandparents.

"So, nice ride," Edward said, grinning.

He had wondered all Sunday if he was allowed to speak to her at school, or if the budding friendship between them was to be a secret, not acknowledged in front of their fellow students. He had arrived early and waited in the shadows and was glad she chose to park all the way over this side, away from prying eyes.

It was up to her, if she reacted even slightly badly he would walk away and hope they could still talk when they met on their runs.

She hadn't run yesterday at all, but then, it had poured cats and dogs and he had been the sole person on the track.

"Thank you Edward, I do realise The Beast is the envy of every car owner here but it's mine, you cannot have it."

"Darn, I guess I am stuck with my shiny Volvo then. So envious."

"Learn to live with it," she grinned and waited for him to catch up and walk beside her.

He ran a hand through his hair, it appeared she was unafraid to go public and declare her association with him. He almost skipped with joy then remembered to not go there, she would definitely run screaming to the hills if he skipped.

"So, the answer to question 53 is really 7?" she checked.

"Yes but do you get how to work it out? I should have explained the method better instead of playing around with the dobro."

"Nah, music always tops Algebra. I can live with one incorrect answer," she replied.

Jessica Stanley came running from the canteen and stopped dead, her face frozen in shock.

"Bella?" she said, in disbelief, like Edward had forced his company on her uninvited. He frowned and started to walk away.

Bella shot out a hand and grabbed his arm.

"Jessica, good morning, lovely day, we just wish the rain had stopped earlier. Edward and I both run, you know, but not in torrential showers. I don't like cold wet weather. Did you have something to tell me?"

Jessica shook her head mutely.

"Okay fine, see you in Economics."

Bella turned to Edward.

"So, when do I get my first guitar lesson?" she asked, and started walking, so he walked beside her.

"Anytime, just say the word. I have an old acoustic guitar I can bring over, it might be easier to learn some basic chords and such on it first."

"Or I could save you the trip and come to yours," she replied, dropping her bookbag and sitting at a seat one in from the aisle. He was sort of sure that meant he was allowed to sit with her, so he dropped his bag, and she moved over slightly to allow him leg room.

He concentrated on not embarrassing her by hyperventilating, she had no idea what she was doing, accepting him like any other student.

"So, you need to work out the square root first and work backwards?" she queried, frowning at the page she had opened, tapping it with her pen.

"Sure, let me explain."

Edward was amazed not to be tongue tied, and he let his mouth work on automatic as he explained how to get to the end result.

"Oh, now I get it. That's not even that mystical," Bella replied, her face open and happy."Thanks, Banner has explained it to be ten times but it just didn't twig, I assumed I was just thick."

"Bella," he growled," if you are thick then there's no hope for the rest of us, seeing you are clearly the smartest girl here."

She blushed and he swallowed.

God, she was beautiful. It wasn't just her soul, it was her face and her body and her spirit.

Jasper and Alice took the two seats in front of them and Alice turned around.

"Hi, Bella, so question 53? Did you get it? Jas and I worked for an hour, I swear."

"If the answer is 7, then yes I got it. Edward explained it in words of one syllable, it's kind of obvious when you think about it."

"I hate Algebra," Alice whispered as Banner walked into the classroom, turning back to the front.

Jasper raised a single eyebrow at Edward and grinned. Edward smiled and looked at Bella, she was far prettier than his brother.

"So, before you all cry like little babies, who got an answer for question 53?" the teacher asked, scanning the room, his eyes stopping in surprise that the usually solitary Cullen was sitting in a group for once.

"Swan?" he asked. He instantly regretted choosing her, she was the one most likely to have worked it out and it would have been more fun to choose Newton or Crowley, or both. He slapped his ruler onto her desk.

"No, don't tell me, Swan. Newton, what's your answer?" he thundered as Bella opened her mouth .

"2,676.54" Mike read from his notes.

"So close, Newton, so close." Banner walked to Crowley's desk where the boy was trying to shrink into the woodwork of his chair.

"Tyler, I bet you have the right answer," he said, smirking.

"5.75?" Tyler stuttered.

"Nope, it seems we have a classroom full of morons. Swan, save me from suicide, what's the answer."

"Seven," she said confidently.

"Yes, we have one student not yet brain dead, Praise The Lord," he quipped. "Seven, so obvious. Bella is going to come to the front and explain how she worked it out. Come on, Miss Swan, your public await you."

Bella strode to the chalkboard and quickly copied what Edward had shown her and stood back, eying her work.

"Yes, yes, yes. Now do you get it, you lot?" Banner droned, and she walked back to her seat, mouthing a silent 'thank you' to a grinning Edward.

"Oh, Bella cheated, she just thanked Edward Cullen, he must have showed her," Jessica called out.

Banner turned and faced Bella.

"Did you ask Mr Cullen to explain the procedure?" he asked.

"Yes, I did," she replied.

The class held a collective breath.

"And that is why Bella Swan will end up a CEO and you, Jessica, will end up cleaning public toilets for a living. Don't know, ask! How many times have I said that?"

"2,676.54 times," Mike muttered under his breath.

"Oh Newton finally got an answer right, take a bow, Mike."

He did and the class applauded.

"Right, now, class, playtime is over, turn to page 97 and read through the first problem."

Bella snuck a quick glance at Edward, as he read the page and he caught her eye and they both smiled.

Banner's voice droned on and they worked quickly and silently , just sharing the occasional smile between them.

Lunchtime came around quickly and Edward once again was worried about what he should do, but Bella walked straight to the table the Cullen pseudo siblings shared and sat in the chair beside Edward's. Rose walked up to the table and scowled and stood with her tray,tapping her foot impatiently so Edward stood again and grabbed a spare chair from the adjoining table and bowed as he set it next to Emmett for her.

"Your throne, Your Royal Highness," he said and sat back in his own seat, and faced Bella.

"So, what's on the menu today?" he asked. "What do you usually eat for lunch?"

"We could go look," she suggested and Edward proudly walked beside her and along the row of glass fronted trays and piled on whatever she indicated she wanted. Pizza, a red apple, a bottle of lemonade. He duplicated her order for himself and paid the cashier and carried the tray back, sitting it on the table in front of their chairs.

Rose stopped her clearly displeased tirade to Emmett and ignored them both, which suited Edward fine. It saved him ignoring her.

Bella picked up her slice of pizza and took a bite.

"God, has that got pineapple on it? Who puts pineapple on a pizza? Taste it, Edward, is that pineapple?"

She held the slice out to him and he bit it, amazed she was sharing food with him. He was so used to years of being treated like he was contagious, this was just hard to believe and accept.

"I'm not tasting any pineapple," he answered and she furrowed her brow and took another bite right from where he had bitten.

"Must have been just the one piece, it was definitely pineapple."

Edward grinned and ate his own slice and relaxed in his chair for the first time ever.

Bella finished eating and Alice sat beside her and started chatting about Chemistry, where the two girls sat together.

Bella took her bottle from the tray and struggled to open it with her hands still greasy from the pizza. Edward silently took it from her and opened the lid, pocketing the small metal cap as he handed the bottle back and she nodded her thanks and drank while listening to Alice.

"I think we should do the assignment together, you could come to mine, Charlie is on afternoon shift today," Bella said to the girl."If you have nothing else on."

"No, that's fine. I will grab a lift with you then after school. I'll meet you in the car park, I know your truck."

"Everyone knows Bella's truck," laughed Emmett. "Kind of hard to miss."

"Don't diss the truck," Bella answered, frowning at Emmett.

"Tell me it at least has a good sound system," Emmett pleaded.

"The radio works," Bella answered, "sometimes. If the mood takes it and the weather is just right and three black crows fly overhead in perfect formation."

Everyone laughed except Rose who turned away and tapped her fingers on her arm.

"Let me guess, Jupiter has to be in the seventh house," Jasper kidded.

"It helps, to be honest," Bella answered.

"Augh, you cannot drive a vehicle without a good sound system. When is your birthday?" Emmett asked.

"September 13" she replied.

"How do you feel about really early birthday gifts?" he asked.

"Gifts are good, shall I hand over my keys so you can install it?" she joked back.

"Bella, I am insulted, you think I would need a key to get into that heap of junk?" Emmett answered. "Please, I could have opened it when I was a teething baby."

"Emmett's career in crime started really young," Jasper said.

Edward stiffened, there would always be something ready to remind him of his past. His siblings knew very little, just that he was 'orphaned' at age five and had no relatives so had been fostered.

Edward still had no idea what Carlisle and Esme had been told about him, they had never broached the subject, just accepted him warts and all, and arranged for counselling from the get go, so they knew at the very least he had not been raised by Mary Poppins before they took him in.

He sometimes wondered if he would feel better if he told them honestly and openly about everything but he was always held back by the fear of what he would see in Esme's eyes if she knew what a monster she had cradled in her arms. If Bella was determined to stay in his life any length of time, he would have to think seriously about what to tell her, how much, and when. It was not a tale you laid on someone in one session, he wanted to tell her things and see how she reacted to the lesser evils at first before deciding how far to go.

Of course, maybe she was just amusing herself and would sit with another group next week, she had sat at the Stanley/Newton/Crowley table all last week. Maybe everyone just got a week.

The bell rang and everyone stood and walked slowly to the doors.

"Are you going for a run tonight?" Edward asked. He was not in any more of her classes today and she was spending time with Alice later so all that remained in his grasp was the evening run.

"Sure, if it's not raining and if Alice and I get a head start. See you then," she answered and walked off with Angela Webber toward their next classroom.

Edward headed for his class, and smiled to himself.

He had a friend, no matter how temporary she may be.

xxx

Alice looked doubtfully at The Beast and Bella laughed.

"I know he isn't pretty but he gets me from A to B and that's what matters," she said, unlocking her door.

"Shit, Alice, look at this."

Alice climbed inside as Bella leaned over and unlocked the passenger door.

"What? You already have a sound system?" Alice asked, puzzled.

"I didn't when I arrived this morning," Bella replied.

"Shit, I wonder which teacher's car he stole it from?" Alice said, looking about, towards the teachers car park. They would leave later than the students, it was probably too early to worry about the discovery and resulting fallout.

"Oh look at the cd's, Jack White, The Killers, Muse, play Muse. I love Muse," Alice trilled so Bella inserted the cd and started the truck.

Emmett waved as she drove out and she grinned at him. She wondered if this made her an accessory after the fact or what? She wondered if Charlie would have to arrest her, because that would be tricky.

"Oh Matthew Bellamy, come live in my closet," Alice sighed as the music blared.

The assignment was not hard and they got a lot more done than expected so Alice called Esme and stayed on to help Bella prepare and eat dinner and Charlie was thrilled to have her company. Unexpectedly, Renee arrived in a cab and ate with them and spent the evening with Charlie so Bella drove Alice home and Edward was waiting, and they did their run together and ended up back at his place.

"Come in for a while," he asked, as she rubbed the sweat off herself with a towel and tossed it back onto the front seat of her truck.

"I kind of smell gross," she replied.

"You can use my shower, I can lend you something to wear," he offered.

"That will work with us both being the same height and weight," she agreed and walked to the front door, waiting for him to open it for her.

Edward opened the door and walked in, smiling at his parents as they looked up from the television.

"Mom, Dad, Bella is visiting for a while, so we will be up in my bedroom," he said.

"Hello, Bella, welcome," Esme said, smiling at the girl, catching her husband's eye.

Finally!, her expression screamed.

"Hello Bella, and how is your lovely mother these days?" Carlisle asked. He was not Renee's doctor or consultant and knew just the bare facts.

"She had dinner with us tonight and is home with Charlie right now so I thought I would make myself scarce and give them time alone. They are not used to me being home all the time yet. She seems to be going through a steady phase at the moment and she looks well," Bella answered.

"That's good to hear," Carlisle said.

Edward took Bella's hand and led her to the staircase and up two flights.

"This is my room," he said opening the door.

Bella walked in and gasped.

"Cullen, do you know how seriously cool this room is?" she said, wandering from the entire wall of cd's to the flatscreen to the black leather chaise lounge to the enormous brass bed.

"Bathroom is through here," he said, handing her a clean towel off the rail.

"Heated towel rail? That's it, I am moving in," she chuckled and held the warm towel against her cooled skin on her face.

"You could have the bed, I could sleep on the couch," he said.

"Then forget it," she smirked and closed the sliding door behind her.

The many showerheads shot water to every inch of her body and she seriously worried she had just fallen in love for the first time, with a set of plumbing. She tried to be polite and drag herself out after just a few minutes but it proved impossible.

Edward tapped on the door.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Leave me alone, I am having an affair with your shower," she growled, reluctantly turning the water off. She wrapped the bath sheet around her small body and just luxuriated in the feel of warmth it radiated all over her skin.

"I have some clothes," he said through the door.

Bella slid the door open and walked into the bedroom.

"Seriously, how much would you charge me to live in your bathroom?" she asked, flopping back onto his bed. Her hair fanned out around her head like a halo and Edward seriously doubted he had ever seen a sight more lovely. He grabbed his phone and snapped a photo and Bella grinned and posed , leaning on one elbow.

He raised the phone again.

"Wait, wait, have to show some cleavage, this towel is enormous," she said, tucking it down at the top, showing the valley between her breasts.

Edward smiled and snapped another photo.

"I will just be in the shower, here's my smallest Tshirt and some of Alice's trackpants."

Bella stood and dressed while he was showering and she listened with her ear against the door.

"I can hear you, Cullen, no jerking off while I am in your bedroom," she called cheekily.

Edward laughed and decided that was probably wise, he had been thinking maybe he could get away with a quick round of relief but clearly not.

He dressed and returned to his bedroom and found Bella curled up on his bed.

"Guitar lesson number one, do you know how to hold this?" he asked, walking to get one of the many acoustics from where they hung on his far wall. He grabbed his favorite for himself, and sat cross legged on his bed and she sat up and followed his example.

She looked awesome in his old track shirt with Cullen across the back, and Alice's pants were mercifully tight on Bella, and showed her figure off to perfection.

Edward taught her three basic chords and patiently showed her over again where to put her fingers each time and smiled encouragingly as she attempted to copy.

Once she had them sounding reasonable, he took the guitar back from her and hung both on the wall, taking down a dobro instead.

"I was thinking, maybe this song would thrill your mother, it's easier to play than it seems at first." He walked to his door and opened it.

"Jaz, come accompany me will you?"

Edward put the finger and thumb picks on and started sliding the steel, as Jasper sat on the chair by the desk and started strumming his own guitar.

Bella watched transfixed, Edward was different with a guitar in his hand. Far more comfortable and confident and at home. When he started singing she feared she would swoon, whatever that meant, clearly a state where the blood left your head and moved further downwards.

'You've painted up your lips and rolled and curled your tinted hair,

Ruby are you contemplating going out somewhere?

The shadows on the wall tell me the sun is going down,

Oh Ruby, don't take your love to town.'

By the time he finished she was distinctly damp and slightly concerned the guys would detect the level of her arousal.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked her. He had chosen that song for two reasons, he liked challenging himself to desensitize to lines like "If I could move I'd get my gun and put her in the ground" and the dobro really needed someone with a guitar to accompany it for this particular tune. That way maybe he could volunteer for that when the time came.

"Perfect," she uttered, then wondered if he was actually asking what she thought of him, seeing that was the question she had answered.

Jasper grinned, watching them both, and started playing chords.

"This is another song The Killer's covered, you might like it," he said with a grin.

Edward grinned as he recognised the song, Romeo and Juliet, and kicked Jasper's chair, laughing.


	5. Chapter 5

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 5

Sponge Worthiness

"Bella, I was wondering if we could maybe book some of your time this weekend?" Charlie asked as Bella walked through the door. It was getting to be a rare treat to have her in the house these days, he saw little more of her now than he had when she was in boarding school. She cooked his dinners but he had noticed she now cooked in bulk and froze portions in the freezer for convenience, so she could be home a bare minimum yet still have dinner on the table just as he liked it.

He was waiting for the day she brought Edward Cullen home to formally introduce himself. He had seen the boy in his car briefly as Bella bolted to the front door and disappeared inside the shiny Volvo most mornings. Apparently The Beast was superfluous to her needs these days, Edward was her chauffeur.

She ran every morning and evening regardless of the weather, often she went to the Cullen house afterwards and Edward drove her home just in a nick of time for her to reheat a frozen dinner in the microwave.

He hadn't said anything, he knew she would want to date and few of the boys in town were suitable matches for his daughter, Charlie reasoned.

He had taken the precaution of checking Edward on the police computer but there was nothing, not even a speeding ticket.

He knew he had been fostered since aged five. What could a five year old possibly have done that could affect his adult life? Not a lot, Charlie had concluded. Maybe he had been a victim of crime, those files were sealed often if the child was under ten.

Bella seemed to be a good judge of character, she sometimes shared with him things Jessica Stanley had said at school and she was always outraged, even if just laughingly so, at the random things the girl said.

"Sure, make your booking early, you know I want to get in as many guitar lessons before Mom's birthday, I am planning on surprising her. You haven't mentioned anything, right?" Bella checked.

"Nope, but when I heard you play that night you were already amazing, I fail to see what Edward is teaching you."

Bella twisted the teatowel in her hands, and wished the microwave worked faster.

"Actually Dad, that was Edward you heard. I took him upstairs to show him Phil's steel guitar and he played it for me."

"But he didn't leave, I would have seen him."

"I may have thrown him out the window," Bella admitted.

"Bells, you are eighteen years old and I am not a complete fool."

"Seventeen but thanks, I can live with eighteen," she snarked.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Charlie asked, wanting everything open and cleanly labelled.

Bella considered it.

"I wouldn't say boyfriend, maybe boy friend is more accurate."

"So, you two aren't..."

"Dad! Don't go there, please. He hasn't even kissed me, if you have to know. We just play guitars and hang out, sometimes with Alice and Jasper, sometimes with Emmett."

"Emmett has that Barbie doll girlfriend? You don't hang with her?" Charlie asked.

"Rose is not a fan of mine or Edward's, she prefers Emmett only be with us when she is elsewhere."

Charlie mumbled and sat up straighter as his daughter handed him a plate of hot spaghetti.

Bella waved a hand at the salad bowl and bread on the table already and he took a lettuce leaf for show. Damn rabbit food.

They had barely finished eating when the front doorbell sounded.

Bella jumped up like she had been shocked and faced him.

"Dad, Edward wants to introduce himself, he is kind of old fashioned about things."

"So long as he is old fashioned about sex, I can live with that," Charlie answered.

"Be good, please, he is important."

"I think I know that by now, Bells," he answered.

Edward walked inside and reminded himself there was no way Charlie Swan could know much about his past, therefore he had little to fear.

Charlie stood and held out a hand.

"So, Edward, nice to meet you properly at last. Does this mean you intend dating my daughter?" he asked.

"Nice to meet you, Sir. I do indeed intend asking Bella to start dating me. We have become friends and your daughter is a really special girl, and I fully respect her, Chief."

"That's what I like to hear, respect. Well, then, I guess I have no objections. How are your parents? I haven't seen Esme in a while though I often run into Carlisle in the course of my work. "

"Been beating the prisoners again, Dad?" Bella asked.

Charlie scowled at her and invited Edward to sit down, so Bella poured coffee for them all.

"So, where might you be taking my daughter on your first date?" Charlie asked the boy.

He looked older than one would expect a Junior to look, but then, some of the boys looked years younger than Bella and she would be the youngest in that year, most likely. You couldn't judge by looks alone, maybe he should pull a copy of his licence.

"Nowhere with a bar, I am 21 but I am well aware Bella isn't," Edward replied and Charlie stiffened.

"Twenty-one? What are you doing at Forks High?"

"I was homeschooled but Esme is not a qualified tutor so I have to get two years in at an approved school and all Forks has on offer is the High School. I am considered a mature aged student."

"Right, right,"Charlie relaxed a little. Maybe mature would be good. Better than immature.

"I haven't had a lot of experience around girls, in fact, this will be my first date, Sir. I am not some older man preying on schoolgirls. Emotionally I am probably younger than Bella is. I was homeschooled as I said, and until Emmett and Jas joined the family, I had little interaction with my peers."

The home phone rang and Charlie excused himself and went to the hallway to answer it, ignoring the kitchen extension.

"Tell me you did not just admit to my father that you are a virgin?" Bella whispered in Edward's ear.

"I'm afraid so, there's no point letting him think I am some guy who has experience, seeing it will be blatantly obvious I have none once he sees me in action."

"Oh, Charlie gets to watch?" Bella smirked.

"Bella, I mean he will soon twig that I have none of the finesse the average 21 year old male has around women. I am virtually a seventeen year old teen myself."

"Then I can get you young and train you well," Bella smirked.

Edward wanted to ask her questions, like how many boys she had been with, but he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answers. She was the most confident, out going teen girl he had ever seen, and it worried him that he was light years behind her when it came to sex.

She came across as someone with some experience at least, the way she had invited him to visit via her bedroom window, the way she lay across his bed, clad only in a towel.

Jasper said he could usually tell pretty well but she had him bamboozled. In some ways she seemed older than her true age, but at other times, like when she cried when Edward sang and played guitar to her, she seemed young and vulnerable.

She never acknowledged the tears, just flicked them away impatiently and went on as if they had never existed.

She frowned at him and read his mind.

"Have you ever watched that episode of Seinfeld when the manufacturer stops making Elaine's favourite contraceptive sponges? She buys the last couple of cases in existence then she has to decide after each date if the man she was out with is sponge worthy?"

Edward nodded.

"I have never found any man sponge worthy," she informed him.

"Does that include me?" he asked.

"That remains to be seen," she smirked.

Charlie came back a few minutes later and Edward was feeling happy and quite relaxed now, this conversation had gone pretty much how he would have hoped. Better even. No man had ever been sponge worthy with Bella. That was epic.

xxx

Bella watched Alice in the mirror and bit her tongue, not daring to tell the girl to just leave it, her hair looked fine. God knows it had been put through more treatments today than in her entire life, and now it shone like liquid mahogany in the rays of sunlight that stole through the window.

"Maybe we should put it up," Alice said, holding the long tresses in her hand, looking back at Bella in the mirror.

"It's a date, not a wedding," Bella hissed.

"Oh believe me, when you two get married this process will last an entire week before the big day. And you think the avocado mask took a long time, you will be masked for a month beforehand."

"Funnily enough I'm not that bothered, seeing Edward and I have not even been on a date yet. What makes you think we will get married? He's my first boyfriend and I'm his first girlfriend, not that he has even asked me to be that yet."

"I know these things. I wasn't locked up in the nut house for nothing, I have flashes of the future. Good and Bad, but I only see good for you two."

Bella squinted her eyes and played with the mascara wand.

"Oh God, sorry, I shouldn't say nut house, I know your Mom spends time there still. I wasn't being disrespectful, just acknowledging my own status as family nut case. I should shut up now, shouldn't I? I am making things worse."

"It's okay, I know you don't mean anything nasty by it. It's just hard, you know? It's been like seventeen years almost since Phil died, and she has never recovered. She was pregnant to him but she hadn't told him yet, she was waiting to have a special dinner but they had guests when she did the test so she waited until they left, then it was too late. Phil was killed in a car accident, Mom was injured but the pregnancy held, then at the funeral she started bleeding and Charlie rushed her to the hospital but she lost Phil's baby and there were no second chances."

"Can I ask, does she live with Charlie as his wife now?"

"She was never divorced. She had filed but they never proceeded after Phil died. It was just cancelled, so Charlie could cover her medical bills at first, then, well, there was never any point, she never looks at other men and he is happy having her around whenever she comes to stay."

"I meant as '_husband and wife_' in the biblical sense," Alice amended.

"Oh, ew, Alice, I have no idea. I hope so, how boring would it be to never have sex just because your soul mate died? Especially as she was only with him a matter of months. I have no memory of Phil, I was just a baby myself when we lived with him. Renee told me all about him when I was a kid, but we don't talk about him any more. Shit, what is the date?"

"June 29th, why?"

"Fuck, the anniversary of his death is coming up, she always crashes backwards when it happens and doesn't come good again until Christmas."

"So she doesn't come see you on your birthday?" Alice asked, remembering it was in September.

"Nope, she has no reaction to September 13th, it's like July 4th is such a horrendous date it wipes out all meaning. She never celebrates her own birthday, or Charlie's, if we bake a cake or whatever, she is always surprised and then guilty for not remembering. I wish birthdays could be cancelled."

"But not your 18th," Alice winked.

"It will be good to be a legal adult, yes, you are right about that."

"So, what color eye shadow?" Alice mused, looking through her palette."I know Edward has this thing about blue."

Rose walked past and doubled back.

"No, never blue with those eyes, smoky gray, here let me."

She took over and in minutes Bella was shocked to find herself looking quite attractively made up, almost beautiful.

"You so have to do her wedding make up," Alice said, hopping about, clapping her hands as Rose painted her masterpiece.

"She's getting married?" Rose gasped.

"No, relax, Alice is just putting the cart before the horse. I'm going on my first date, actually."

"We should talk sometime. I mean, Emmett is obviously a great catch but I don't get why you even like Edward. I mean, okay, he is good looking but all that dark and angsty shit, it gets old fast."

Bella frowned.

"I have never seen him dark and angsty. Is he really like that at home?"

"He was, until you came along, I'm sure Emoward is all in the past now," Alice trilled.

"Those songs he used to play on his piano, he had me, me..Rosalie Hale, in tears, just listening. Rosalie Hale does not cry. So freaking sad and moody, and he would get lost in them, not even notice we were in the room. He has had some bad shit in his life, Bella, do you really want a man with so much baggage?"

"May I once again remind you both, first date? I sincerely doubt he is going to propose, if that were to happen it would be ten years down the track and by then I imagine I will know everything there is to know about Edward Anthony Cullen and his baggage. Wait, that's not his birthname, is it? What was his original surname?" she asked.

"Nobody knows, his records were sealed. He may not even remember himself, he was taken off his parents when he was not even yet five, I think. Emmett doesn't know much. He would tell me if he knew more. I have ways of making him talk."

"Ew, Rose, please, we don't want to hear about the sexual torture you do on the boy," Alice stated.

"Sexual torture? For God's sake, all you have to do is cross your legs and say 'no, not until you tell me,' I am sure you know that already Alice."

"Oh sex sounds like such fun," Bella deadpanned, just as Edward approached the room.

She blushed bright red when she saw him.

"Bella, you ruin that make up..." warned Rose.

Alice grabbed Edward and dragged him away.

"You do not get to see her until she is completely ready, we have a few finishing touches,"

Alice said.

"No, we are actually done, thank you both, but as I said, it's a date, not..."

Bella paused and blushed again.

"You look beautiful," Edward said sincerely, and Alice and Rose disappeared.

Edward kept shooting glances across at the girl in his passenger seat and wondering how his life had suddenly stopped being all about him and had become instead all about her. He lived her, breathed her, adored her, dreamed about her.

The guitar lessons were coming along fantastically even though the actual lessons were way shorter than the time she spent in his bedroom.

He wanted...more.

He wanted things he had never imagined he would want, let alone get but with Bella, sometimes he felt anything was possible.

She saw him so differently than everyone else. Like Esme saw him, only more so.

Dating seemed the obvious way to push them past the line that divided friendship from something deeper, so he was surprised to find he was willing to risk everything if it meant he could one day hold her in his arms. She touched him unselfconsciously at times, when she walked around his chair, when she led him upstairs at her house or his, and she had never returned the Tshirt he lent her even though Alice had her trackpants back within days.

He liked that, and he hoped she wore it, especially if she wore it to bed, because he had never seen her in it again and why else would she keep it?

The idea of Bella wrapped in his clothing was enough to make him man up and take things a step further.

"So, do you like Italian?" he asked, aware he probably should have asked earlier before booking the table at Bella Italia, but her name being part of the title had made him choose this place over any others.

"Sure, I eat anything already off the hoof," she answered. "So long as someone else kills it for me and I don't have to eat it raw, it's okay with me."

Edward parked and rushed to open her car door, and she stepped out and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

He froze then smiled and his fingers touched where her lips had.

Kissed by a girl.

Kissed by Bella.

He increased his pace to catch up to her and held the restaurant door open. The hostess took one look at them and walked them to a table in the back, where it was quieter and less brightly lit.

Bella was watching him, and she tore her eyes away just for a second, to randomly point to the first item on the menu.

"I'll have that, and a Coke, thanks."

Edward took the menu from her and grinned.

"So, what did you just order?" he asked.

"Um, food." she answered.

"Mushroom ravioli" the hostess answered for her.

"Two then, and two Cokes," he stated.

The woman walked away, deliberately rubbing her arm against his shoulder but he barely noticed and Bella frowned.

"What?" he asked her, was she regretting coming here with him?

"That was very blatant, I can't stand pushy chicks myself," Bella replied and Edward laughed.

"What? Are you calling me a pushy chick?" she asked.

"Oh no," he shook his head, "Not you, you are a shy little flower of a girl."

"Yes, just remember that," she warned. "If I had sat around and waited for you to talk to me, it would never have happened, would it?"

Edward shrugged.

"I wanted to talk to you from the first day you bowled into the school and upped the attractiveness factor by ten times."

"Then why didn't you?" she asked.

"Bella, you must have noticed I am not exactly the normal Forks High student, and nobody ever bothered talking to me before you. I mean, now they do. It's like you opened the door and showed them there was an actual human being on the other side."

"Rose said you used to be all dark and emo, is that true?"

He laughed.

"My nickname at home was Emoward, so judge for yourself. You came into my dark sky and scattered stars throughout it and gave me a sense of light."

"Go me," she answered.

"You have this amazing ability to make me feel like I am worthy of your company, nobody ever did that before."

Bella blinked and reached for his hand.

"You never have to tell me about whatever dark shit fucked you up, Cullen, I am happy to just know you from the day we met. Your life before me is not important."

"You got that right." he grinned and watched her blush so beautifully as she realised the double meaning and almost arrogance of what she had said.

"I mean, we all have secrets and bad shit, I realise you had a rough start obviously or you wouldn't be with the Cullens, you would have grown up with your own parents."

"I never knew my mother, she died when I was too young to remember her, and my father...I don't talk about my father. He was bad and mean and if we end up getting serious about one another, then there are things I have to tell you, but please not now. I want to have a chance with you and that won't happen if you know everything tonight."

"Edward, I just said I would make my own assessment of you from the day we met and stuff that happened when you were a kid, I realise it must have been bad and horrible but you never have to tell me if you don't want to."

"Sadly I do. I wish I could wipe it all away out of my head and forget it ever happened but I can't, so you do have to know what you are taking on if it comes to that."

Bella smiled, and wondered if it was possible to know on a first date that you were meant to be with a certain person, maybe forever, right from the beginning. Did it happen that way in real life? She had been attracted by more than his looks the first time she saw him, it was like some little voice inside had said "_Pay attention, this man is yours, you just need to go get him"_ because she had never approached any other boy anything like the way she had spoken to him that night on the path.

She had shocked herself, inviting him into her bedroom.

She could not even plead she knew nothing about him, she already had been warned there was something bad in his past but it truly hadn't mattered. Circumstances make us what we are, if he had a bad start he had overcome it now, outwardly at least.

The waitress handed her dinner plate over and then Edward's and she giggled and blushed at him but he was watching Bella and didn't notice.

Bella decided these women were getting the minimum acceptable tips if it was down to her.

Eating together in a grown up setting was new, she decided she did like dating.

Maybe she just liked dating Edward but she noticed the looks they were attracting, they clearly looked good together.

Older couples were smiling in that way that said they were remembering when they were young and new to one another. She envied their years together, and hoped if something did happen between them, it was the lasting kind of something and not the something that filled in time before one of them found their real soul mate.

Like with her Mom.

She shook the thought away.

"So, tell me your plans for the future," Edward said.

"Plans? Oh yeah, I suppose I need to start making some kind of plans. i just kind of sit around and let life happen, I believe in fate. What happens is what is meant to be to an extent."

"Really? You seem like a much more go get them girl."

"Edward, in case you are wondering, I have never come on to any other guy like I did to you. I can't even explain myself. I saw, I liked, I wanted to get to know you and you didn't seem to know I existed so I had to jump out and point out the many benefits of befriending Bella Swan."

"All positives so far, and I definitely knew you existed. I even think, given time, I would have spoken to you."

"So, was I too pushy?" she asked.

"No, you were out there but never pushy. I needed waking up and you did that. I kind of lived inside my own head, it was wonderful to be invited out into the real world. You have no idea the difference you have made to my life. You have given me something I never had."

"What, a pushy dinner partner?"

"Hope."

She had no idea how to answer that but she lay her fork down and reached for his hand.

He made no move to take it back.

"Would you like to order dessert?" he asked her after a short silence.

"Maybe next time, I would prefer your first impression of me not be one of pure gluttony. I saw the dessert trolley, if I ordered from it I would want one of everything."

She drained the last of her Coke and reluctantly let go of his hand.

"Bathroom break, be right back," she said and left the table.

Edward smiled as he watched her walk away. Edward Cullen was on a date, and with the prettiest girl in Forks. It was almost surreal, like he had slipped into an alternate universe that night on the path. And she had said those magic words, 'next time'. She was already agreeing to go on a second date with him.

He could not fuck this up.

Something told him this was his only chance of real happiness, she was the only girl for him and if he lost her, then it was back to moody piano recitals and hours of loneliness in his bedroom, smoking and hating life.

Life could be good after all, there was this little window opening to him, and maybe one day if he played his cards right, it would turn into a whole door.


	6. Chapter 6

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 6

Babies

Edward opened the car door and Bella climbed inside and he handed her the box the waitress had packed for them.

"What's this?" she asked.

"One of everything off the sweets trolley," he answered, grinning.

"Edward, no way! I call dibs on the chocolate mousse pie, you should be warned from the start, never get between me and chocolate in any form, it's never pretty."

"I will remember that," he smiled.

"Only if you value your limbs, and fingers. You probably need them to play guitar and your piano," she commented.

"So, are we going back to yours or mine?" he asked.

"Who is at yours?" she asked.

"Emmett and Rose, my parents are out at dinner themselves at some hospital function, and Jasper is taking Alice to do some night skating in the park. So, basically, Emmett and Rose."

"Is Emmett a chocoholic because he looks like he would wrestle me to the ground if he wanted the pie?" she said.

"Oh definitely, but would Charlie be cool with us going back to your house?" he asked. Charlie seemed to like him okay but you never knew.

"Charlie got called in, I got a text when I was in the Ladies Room. He is pulling an all nighter."

"Bella, I would never take advantage of his absence," he assured her.

"Drat, there go my plans," she smirked.

"I thought the consumption of all things chocolate was your plan," he said.

Bella smiled.

"That's right. I can't eat all this alone, you had better be helping me out."

"I can do that. I just don't want to rock the boat with the Chief. I don't want to fuck this up, Bella. I fear I will soon enough so I want to spend as much time as I can with you before you decide I'm not worth the effort."

"You are worth the effort," she replied. "Please don't talk like that. I hate whatever made you feel like you are unworthy, Edward. If anything, the scales are loaded in your favor, you have the looks, the musical talent, the beautiful soul,..."

"Don't mention my soul, I lost that at a very young age," he replied.

"Then somewhere along the line you regained it. You have a beautiful aura."

"You see aura's?" he asked, pulling up in her driveway beside The Beast.

"I sense them rather than see them and yours is all sweetness and beauty and light, I wish you saw that for yourself."

Edward opened her door and took the box of desserts and Bella reached for the 'hidden' key and unlocked the front door.

"Let's hope you never get robbed, that's king of an obvious place to keep a key," Edward commented. "Emmett would find that in a second."

"Emmett sounds like he has an interesting past," Bella replied. "I would love to hear his story sometime."

"You have to be eighteen plus," Edward replied.

"Something to look forward to, then," she smiled.

They sat opposite one another at the table and Bella opened the box and squealed slightly.

"God, I've caught Alice-itis, I never squeal."

"So, which dessert will it be first?" Edward asked.

Bella handed him a small plate and a fork and they each selected the one that appealed most.

Edward took the lemon meringue pie and Bella the mousse.

"That must taste amazing, going on your facial expression," Edward chuckled.

"Here, taste it," she offered, holding out her fork to him with the last spoonful.

He opened his mouth and savoured the smooth rich flavor, she had got the better prize. His eyes stayed on hers and she suddenly took the empty fork back and lay it on the table.

She shut the box and placed it inside the fridge and turned.

"I need you to kiss me," she said and he stood and smiled at her, loving her neediness and boldness.

He wanted to kiss her, so badly, he had for weeks, now it seemed once again she had opened that window a little more.

"Upstairs," she said, pulling him by the hand.

Edward hesitated.

"You can be gone long before Dad gets home, come on," she said impatiently.

Edward shrugged, he wanted whatever she was willing to give at this point. He was realistically never going to last long term, he didn't have what it took, maybe he should enjoy whatever she offered from the start to the sad and bitter inevitable end.

Bella locked her door behind them and sat on her bed. Edward walked towards her and sat beside her, gently touching her face, lifting her chin and bending down to take her full and so desirable lower lip into his own mouth.

She grasped his hair and ran her hands through it, moaning slightly. The feel of her fingers against his scalp made him tingle and push against her hands for more, like some needy lapdog.

She tasted so sweet, and chocolatey, he wondered what her real flavor was. Better than the mousse, that was for sure.

Bella lay back and pulled him down with her and he willingly went. His hands sought her back and he held her against him as they kissed, pausing to quickly draw in a new supply of oxygen now and then, when they feared blacking out.

He loved this, he loved kissing, it was so much more awesome than he had expected.

Her hands were stroking his sides, his backside, his back, down again, and one hand slid to his groin and stroked the front of his jeans and she felt his hardness there.

"Slow down," he gasped, he didn't want to experience the whole nine yards the first night they spent together and he had already decided he was sleeping here in her bed, with her.

If she let him.

"Edward, it's the ideal opportunity. Don't you want me?" she asked.

"Of course I want you, but this is our first time of even kissing, shouldn't we go slow?" he said, rolling his head against her fingernails as she scratched and made him buzz with desire.

"How slow?" she asked, catching his lips in her own and making him doubt the wisdom of even being here in her bedroom.

She clearly wanted him as much as he wanted her.

"God, I have no idea. What are your rules? How many dates do we go on before naked starts?"

"One," she answered, replacing her hand at his groin and rubbing harder.

"You said you are a good girl, I don't think this is how good girl's behave," he groaned.

"That's all your fault. I never felt this way about anyone before, and now that I do feel this way, I want it all."

Edward lay on his back and took her hands from his hair and zip. He needed to be clear headed.

"Bella, I have one unchangable rule, I can never, ever under any circumstances, make love without protection. I guess if we are getting into things this fast, I need to tell you a few things."

"Okay," she agreed, leaning up on one elbow, watching his face.

"My father shot me in the back on my fifth birthday," he said, pulling his shirt off and turning so she could see the scar.

Bella reached out and touched the puckered scar tenderly. His entire back was a roadmap of old scars. Not as bad as the bullet hole but clearly he knew the taste of the buckle end of the belt.

"God, Edward, I don't know what to say."

"It gets worse. But I can't tell you too much yet and scare you away."

"I'm a band aid kind of girl. Just tell me and let me decide what I can and can't accept."

"Okay, Okay, but you will kick me out of here," he warned.

"Do you have to tell me then?" she questioned.

"I cannot in all conscience sleep with you without you knowing the real me. That would be dishonest."

Bella stroked his face as he lay back down. The scars had shocked her. Charlie had been somewhat lacking as she grew up but to be shot by your own father? She hoped the man was dead.

"Choosing to be with me means choosing to never have children. I can never father a child."

"Okay, kids are not a big deal to me," she replied. "Are you infertile?" she asked, wondering how he knew, if he was a virgin.

"No, I don't imagine I am that lucky. I choose to never have children, no matter what. It's the one truth I know, I cannot create children knowing the blood that runs in my veins."

"Do you have some inheritable condition?" she asked.

"Probably. But it's not strictly medical. Are you sure you are ready to hear this?"

Bella cringed internally but straightened her shoulders, she had to know. Whatever the worst was, she needed to know it all.

"My biological father is a serial killer." he said, feeling it hang in the air like the man himself had just entered her bedroom.

Bella gasped. She knew he was bad but a serial killer? That was heavy.

"Is he dead?" she asked.

"I have no idea, I hope so," Edward replied.

"Are you afraid of him?" she questioned.

"Afraid of a man who would shoot innocent people sleeping in their own beds? Afraid of a man who would shoot his five year old son? Yes, I would have to admit I am afraid of a monster like that."

"Can he find you?" she asked.

"I don't imagine so, my records were sealed when the Cullen's took me in. I fear he is alive because I once asked Esme why she and Carlisle didn't want to adopt me, seeing they were always so determined to keep me and never let Social Services move me on to another foster home, as they tend to do. She said they wished they could adopt me but it wasn't possible for me to be adopted, maybe she meant without my father's permission."

"So he was alive at that point. Do you know where he was?"

"If he was alive, he must have been in prison. If he is alive now, that's where he will be."

"So he can't find you," Bella said."Couldn't you have been made a ward of the court?"

"I don't know the details, Carlisle said anything they did would create a papertrail and he wasn't risking that. Better to just foster. He had pull within the foster system and kept me off their books, but adoption is a legal process, there are records."

Bella was still shocky and was watching her words carefully, she was afraid to say something hurtful without thinking.

"Therefore I will never chance starting a baby with anyone. Believe me, if I could have children, I would choose to have them with you, but it would be a complete nightmare, always watching them, waiting to see if they turned out like him. Worrying they were rougher or more cruel than other kids. Waiting for the dead puppies and disappearing neighborhood pets. That's how it starts, it seems."

"Okay, that's a reasonable reason to never procreate, I guess," she agreed.

"So, no condom, no Pill, no sex. Ever," he said. "No hope that I will relent and change my mind. It's the one thing I know has to happen. I have tried to get a vasectomy, every doctor I have visited so far feels a person needs to be thirty to know their own mind, so I haven't had it done yet but I will."

"Carlisle won't do it?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"He wants me to keep my options open. Like deciding to father a monster will ever be an option."

"Edward, you aren't a serial killer, maybe it has nothing to do with genetics?"

Edward stood and walked away from her bed and turned so he didn't have to see her face watching his.

"I helped him. I was his trojan horse. He sent me into the houses and when everyone was asleep, I unlocked the doors. I let him inside their houses, after they took me in and fed me, I allowed a killer inside. I was a four year old accomplice."

"Going on the state of your back, I suspect you had little choice. You were four, Edward. What could a four year old do against a serial killer? It's surprising he didn't kill you as well."

"Leave no clues," Edward said. "He tried, he knew his goose was cooked if I talked, so he shot me in the back. He tried to remove the threat."

Bella sat on the edge of the bed and held her arms open.

"Please don't shut me out, I know you are not like him. Decisions are not part of the life of any four year old, let alone an abused child. Now as an adult you can look back and maybe see a way out but then? You were a baby. A terrified infant who had no power. Have you ever hurt a single person yourself, Edward?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"Have you ever helped someone who needed rescuing?" she asked, hoping he had assisted some little old lady with her grocery bag and could see the good in himself.

"I hid a baby in the attic when he didn't know it was in the house. The last night, the night he shot me. I found her in her crib and I put her in this box thing in the attic and after he shot me I told the sheriff to go rescue her."

"You saved a baby when you were four? Even knowing what your father would do to you if he found out? My God, you were brave."

"Bella, don't go prettying this up, anyone would have done the same."

"At four, Edward? Seriously. Most four year olds would have tried to hide themselves, not hide a baby. Why didn't you hide with her?"

"I knew he would look for me, I wanted him to stay downstairs. Her parents went downstairs and he killed them there."

"They woke up?"

"I woke them up to warn them about him. I liked them, they were nice to me and I wanted to save them. I didn't open their door , he broke in."

Edward kept his eyes averted from Bella, and his body shook with fear.

This was now the worst night of his life because he had imagined he could be normal and that was not possible. He had almost made it, almost become a real person. She could not possibly accept him now she knew everything.

Bella walked towards him and took his unresisting hands and put them around her waist. She lay her head on his chest and he felt the dampness of her tears.

"Poor little baby," she cried through her tears.

That baby had been a poor little baby, losing both her Mom and her Dad in that one night. He should have done more to save them, tried harder.

"Poor little baby Edward," she continued, and he choked out loud, and held her tighter.


	7. Chapter 7

**Sex alert, adults only please**

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 7

Inside Bella

Edward lay in the darkness and watched the outline of the face of the girl in his arms. She was sleeping, finally, and had begged that he stay this night. He had agreed readily, it was what he had wanted.

He was still shocked, still feeling the need to pinch himself to be sure it hadn't been a dream.

Bella had encouraged him to tell her details of the bad times and thus let them go, let himself heal after all this time. It had felt better, and when she cried as he explained paying the boatman for the old woman, she had sat up suddenly and shook his shoulders.

"There, Edward, a perfect example of the goodness that shone from within you despite everything he did to kill it. You wanted to help her seeing you couldn't have saved her, and you did what you could to ensure her soul made it safely to Heaven. You are good, Edward, you truly are. We can all see it, you have to forgive that little boy and accept he was just fighting to survive the only way he could. He did nothing wrong. If it was your four year old son caught up in similar circumstances, would you blame him and say he was evil? No, you would take him into your arms and hold him and kiss his tears away and get him far away from that monster. You have to do that to the four year old Edward inside.

Hold him close and kiss him better," she said softly.

"I would rather you kissed him," Edward said shakily. She was too perfect, too good. How had he deserved to find a woman like Bella?

Bella leaned across his body and took his lips inside her own and kissed him in a way that comforted and unsettled him in another way.

He truly wanted nothing more than to hold her tonight, there would be time for other things once everything he had told her entered her consciousness and she processed his words and reacted however her soul dictated. He wanted desperately for her to choose to love him, and accept him further, but he had no control. Her initial reaction had been so unexpected.

She had cried for him, and Edward had never allowed himself to cry for that small child he had been.

Maybe it was time someone did.

Of course she would see only the best version of him, and he wanted to believe she was right. Could he have done anything more, really?

Maybe not. Maybe it had been just as she said.

He had no power, he had nothing to use against the monster.

Bella had asked him a question he had never wondered about.

Did he think maybe that baby girl was Alice?

The facts seemed to fit.

Alice's parents had been killed, shot dead, in their remote farmhouse in the foothills of Phoenix by an intruder, and there had been speculation at the time a child had been used to gain entry, as there were small footprints in the mud leading back and forth multiple times from where a truck had been parked in the dirty driveway.

The place had been robbed of every article worth taking, but Alice didn't know where she was found, or whether the robber had not known she existed. Maybe even he had misjudged his father, maybe the man left small babies alive seeing they couldn't identify him.

He was convinced Alice's parents had been killed by his father. She was the same age as Bella, therefore she was the right age to be that small brown haired baby. Her records were sealed, there was no way of even knowing the date it had happened. Her parents had been cremated, so not even a headstone to find.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Had he saved Alice?

Any pleasure he may have gained was lost by the fact her parents had died and the aunt and uncle who raised her instead had been overly religious and had tried to beat the devil out of her from a young age when her visions started.

Not all parents were like Esme and Carlisle, some took pleasure in beating smaller humans.

Alice had finally escaped but the damage had been done and she was put in the rest home by her sixth set of foster parents who had not been able to cope with her 'turns' either, like all the others, and when she told them the wife's parents were going to die in a housefire the night before that actually did happen, they had panicked and had her committed.

Carlisle had taken over her case a year later and immediately lowered her medication, weaning her off the strong drugs that kept her so docile and quiet and bit by bit her personality had peeped out and taken over.

He was convinced there was no reason to keep her in, so once he could run all the necessary tests and put her through examinations by various leading experts, she had been released into his custody.

She still had visions, but he and his wife held no fear she was causing what she predicted, to happen. She was just picking up information from the universe before the event.

Some of her predictions had been so useful, her insistence they should invest in certain shares had netted them enough to put every one of their children through college, regardless of which learning institution they got into. Even Harvard or Dartmouth were doable. Any college they wanted, he could afford easily.

The latest stock share investment had returned even more, he could retire today and not have a single money worry for the rest of his life.

He could even buy each of them a modest house as their leaving gift when they moved on as they all would one day, and not leave a dent in his savings account.

Edward was asleep when Bella awoke to the sound of her bedroom door opening. She looked up sleepily and her father stood there, noting they were both above the covers, fully dressed, well she was. Edward had never put his shirt back on but he was lying on his back so luckily Charlie was not exposed to the traintracks on his skin there.

"Hi Dad," she said quietly, from her place on Edward's chest that she was using as her pillow.

Charlie beckoned with his fingers that he wanted her to come out of the room so she slid from Edward's embrace and quietly shut the door behind herself.

"You know very soon Renee is going to crash again and I don't know if you know, but when that happens, I spend a lot of nights sleeping in her bed at the hospital, she needs me to hold her or she can't sleep. That means you will be alone many nights, Bella. Can I trust you two in an empty house?"

"Dad, it may come as a shock but if we wanted to make love, we could do it at the beach or at school even, some students do that. Edward will be spending a lot of nights in my bed, and I suppose I may sleep in his on occasion as well. As you said, I am almost eighteen. Sex is inevitable."

Charlie coughed.

"Safe sex, with protection?" he queried. The last thing Renee needed was hearing she was going to be a grandma to her high school age daughter's child.

"Safe sex, Charlie. In fact, I am going to see Dr Cullen on Monday to get a prescription for The Pill. I am counting on your approval, I think you may have to sign something seeing I am still seventeen."

Charlie nodded. He was glad she was being straight with him and being sensible. She didn't want any babies at this point of her life either, plenty of time for that after she was safely married.

He had little doubt the man in her bed was the man she would marry. The look on her face was the look on Renee's face when she had introduced Charlie to Phil. It was like some mask they all got to wear to make the announcement for them: This is my man. This is my soul mate.

Renee had never worn that mask for him, but he knew he had for her.

"Tell Carlisle to call me, I will come over and sign whatever he needs me to," he promised. The timing was right, he wanted to know Bella was safe at night in the house when he wasn't there so this was happening fast but that was a good thing.

It wouldn't even be a tragedy if the romance went nowhere, girls today had many partners, he had read that in Bella's Cleo magazine.

She would either marry this boy or move on to another. He would bet money on the former.

Either way, he wanted her protected and he was not about to go all stupid old school parent and insist she wait until after she walked down the aisle because knowing Bella, she would simply take Edward Cullen to the nearest Registry Office and marry him.

He wouldn't refuse, Charlie knew everlasting love when he saw it and it lived there in Edward's eyes.

Bella kissed his cheek and slipped downstairs to make his breakfast. He was weary and he knew soon he would be even tireder. He wished he had some leave due so he could be with Renee full time.

Bella looked up and read his face if not his mind.

"Dad, take your vacation time, don't worry about Christmas. I will be fine, I have Edward now. You should spend your free time with Mom when she needs you most."

He nodded and ate the eggs in front of him.

"Dad, is there a way for you to find details of a crime that happened when I was a baby?" she asked.

Charlie stiffened, hoping it was not the case he thought.

"I think Alice could be a baby Edward saved once when his father was robbing a farmhouse in Arizona."

Charlie was shocked, it was the very case he had suspected but he had no idea Edward was the son of Edward Masen. The man was notorious even today, in the police circles. He had gotten away with far more than he had been charged with. The sheriff in the area at the time had been a friend of Charlie's and the man had brought on his own death by stroke after trying so hard to prove a lot of other burglaries and murders had been down to the same man. Chris had died trying to get that monster convicted of so many crimes he may have faced the chair, even in the conservative times it had happened. Multiple killings made even the soft hearted look the other way sometimes. Sometimes a rabid pest just had to be eliminated.

"I'm not confirming anything, but don't you think Alice deserves her privacy?" Charlie asked.

Bella blushed and nodded.

"I guess if she asked, you might tell her?" she said.

"If she asked," Charlie agreed.

His phone buzzed as he finished the last slice of toast and Bella took away his dishes. No sleep today after all.

"Your mother just crashed, she is early this year," he said.

"Go, Dad, just go. I will be fine," Bella said, waving him out.

Charlie grabbed a quick shower and phoned the station to say he was taking his leave early this year, then he grabbed the bag he kept always packed and ready and headed for his blue pick up.

"Someone will be along to get the cruiser, leave the keys on the kitchen table if you go out," Charlie called as Bella followed him out to wave him off.

Bella returned to her bedroom and slid back to her former place. Edward sighed in his sleep and clasped her body to his tightly and he softly muttered her name.

"My Bella," she smiled as she heard.

She was his Bella and he was her Edward.

She wished she could cradle that little boy who got a bullet in the back for his fifth birthday.

xxx

Edward smiled shamefaced when he opened his eyes and saw her laying there, watching him. He was waiting, whatever she said this morning would have a massive impact on his future. The memory of her kissing every inch of every scar on his back last night still filled him with warmth.

"Good morning, do you always sleep in this late on a Saturday?" she asked, reaching over to stroke his cheek and still his face so she could kiss him.

Edward kissed her deeply, feeling what she wanted to convey in that simple action. She was saying she did mean all the things she had said in the night.

"Only mornings after I spill my guts to a beautiful girl," he answered.

"So, are you a tea or coffee man in the mornings?" she said, holding her head on the side.

"Either is fine. Are you really as calm as you sound?" he asked.

"Yep. I listened, I asked all the questions I wanted answered, you assured me I knew the worst, and now I have to just work out how to separate you from your jeans and we shall be back on schedule," she said with a smile.

Edward relaxed and pulled her closer so he could kiss the top of her head.

"You are one amazing woman, Bella Swan. Is it Isabella, by the way?"

"I wish. My parents liked two syllable names, Charlie Daniel, Renee Mary, Bella Marie. I wish it was Isabella, that sounds kind of foreign and mysterious."

"But Bella means beautiful in Italian," Edward said.

"Well, I guess you can name a baby anything, it doesn't mean they will live up to the name," she replied.

Edward stroked her hair softly and placed his forehead against hers.

"You, Bella Marie Swan, are the very epitome of beauty, you define beauty."

Bella smiled and lazily kissed him and ran her hands over his bare chest.

"I like this top, does it have matching pants?" she asked.

"Will you stop trying to get me out of my pants, Bella. I find it hard to believe you are all virginal when you talk like that."

"You could try me out and see if I am lying," she suggested hopefully.

Edward laughed and agreed he could do that.

"Where's the Chief? Has he come home yet? Do I need to hide in your closet?"

"Too late, he came in hours ago and took photos to blackmail you with. Now you have to marry me."

"I can do that. Do you have a dress?" he asked.

"Do I look like the kind of girl who has a wedding dress years before the wedding?" she replied.

"Alice has a dress already, maybe she will lend you hers," he answered back.

"I guess the wedding would count as a second date," Bella sighed, and rolled away from him.

Edward caught her and rolled her back and kissed her deeply.

"Second date today. Go ask Charlie if he can spare you, we are going hiking."

"Hiking? Like walking for hours in the forest and dying when a bear eats me or I fall off a cliff or something?"

"I will be there to protect you, no bear will get to eat you before I do," he smirked.

"Oh, does this hike lead to naked fun?" Bella asked, more interested now.

"Maybe, it depends how well you behave and if you keep your hands to yourself until we get to the place I want to show you," he said.

Bella jumped up and led him to the bathroom.

She was seeing him naked this morning, that much he would have to allow.

She handed him a towel that seemed so small in comparison to those bath sheets Esme supplied, and it was cold and flat, not like the warm fluffy ones he was used to.

Edward kissed her then shut the door firmly, leaving her on the outside, so she walked away noisily, down the staircase, then slipped off her shoes and tiptoed back, finally appreciating the fact Charlie had never got around to putting a lock on the bathroom door.

The room was filled with steam and Edward was singing softly to himself in the shower, so Bella dropped her clothing on the floor and walked in behind him, handing him a new cake of soap and a wash cloth.

"Can you wash my back, I can never reach that middle bit," she said matter of factly.

"Bella, what do you think you are doing?" he asked in shock.

"Just enjoying the view, and a very nice view it is. So, introduce me to your friend," she answered.

"My friend? What are you talking about? You are my only friend."

"Then who is this?" she asked, reaching out to stroke his very erect penis.

"You name that Little Edward and it will shrink away and become very little," he said, trying not to come in her hand as she stroked him gently.

His hips were rocking back and forth without permission and he was suddenly sweating.

"Bella, Bella, don't," he gasped.

"What? Don't touch, don't stop, don't get on my knees and suck on him?" she asked, dropping onto her knees and taking him into her mouth.

Edward wanted to be good and pull away but he wanted just a second to feel her mouth around him then her tongue suddenly twirled around the head and he wanted her to stay and keep going. Fuck, that was awesome.

She swallowed and he gasped at the sensation and thrust himself inside her mouth a little harder and deeper and groaned at the new sensations.

"Bella," he moaned. His hands reached for her hair that was getting wetter by the minute and he bucked and cried out a warning as his body suddenly pulsed and his seed burst into her mouth.

"Bella!" he screamed.

She swallowed in reflex and he moaned again. God, what was she doing to him?

She let his penis withdraw slowly but she mouthed it clean and kissed the very tip as he dropped it from her mouth.

He pulled her up and kissed her, pushing his tongue in deep, exploring her every depth.

"I love kissing you but that, that was incredible. I can't believe you did that. Is that something you do often?" he asked, already jealous of every boy she had done that too.

"Edward, you really do think I have been around, don't you? I swear I have never had another penis in my mouth, or in my hand or even seen one before."

"Really?" he said, kissing her again. "How did you know what to do then?" he asked.

"It seemed kind of obvious, I just kept doing whatever made you hiss," she explained.

"I was hissing?" he said.

"Oh you were hissing and moaning and groaning and you yelled my name when you came," she said triumphantly.

"Did you like doing that?" he asked. As incredible as it had been from his end, he couldn't imagine it had been that nice for her.

"You taste delicious, I shall now put Edward's semen as my favorite flavour when I fill out any surveys," she promised.

Edward smiled and started to laugh, she was always surprising him but he feared she may just write that if the ice cream store asked for suggestions for a new flavor.

He washed her body and revelled in feeling her breasts in an innocent way, or at least he hoped she saw it as innocent, he was getting hard again at the sight of them soapy and pert with nipples hard enough to cut glass.

He ducked his head as the water rinsed the soap off and he placed his mouth around one little coral pink bud and rubbed it with his tongue.

Her hands were suddenly in his hair and she did that scratching thing. He swapped to her other nipple and savored it's hard swollen tip.

His erection was rubbing on her when he straightened up to kiss her mouth, and her soapy hands were on it, stroking, sliding, pulling, and he wanted her to go harder but was unsure how to tell her.

"Edward, tell me what to do," she asked.

"Hold it tighter, and pull it harder," he said, blushing himself. He had imagined he would be the one doing things to her long before she touched him back. Of course she was first, she was always first, always a step ahead of him.

Her fingers were so soft and small but so powerful.

He rocked and she slid her hand around his shaft and pulled him to ecstasy again, and he shot his seed onto the shower wall. He panted and tried to calm his heartbeat down to normal.

Two orgasms. He rarely bothered giving himself two orgasms in a row, he should have tried it because the second time was even stronger and harder than the first.

He washed her hands and tuned the water off, and led her to her bed, drying her skin with his towel.

Bella flopped back onto the mattress and he lay beside her, stroking along her folds as she opened her legs willingly to him.

"I want to make love to you today, I have to," he said, nuzzling her neck.

"Then do it," she replied.

"It will hurt you and make you bleed and I don't want you to bleed in the meadow," he said.

"You want to make love to me outside?" she questioned.

"I always knew the meadow would be the perfect place to make love for the first time, and if you want to, I will take you there today and do just that."

"But you don't want me to bleed?" she said.

"I could tear your hymen right here, then you will bleed now and maybe enjoy the lovemaking later," he told her. "Some girls go to Carlisle to have him remove theirs before their first time, it makes things easier and better for the girl."

"Okay, if you know what you are doing," she said.

"Get a dark colored towel," he said and took his hands away. Bella fetched a black towel and lay before him and he positioned her legs apart, with her feet flat on her bed and her knees bent.

He eased a finger inside and felt around and found the barrier. Pulling his finger in and out, he felt her sex stretch and he pushed in a second finger as well, and gently left and entered until she became accustomed to feeling that full, and she relaxed again and stopped clenching.

"Okay, now breathe quickly and shallowly and yell if you want to," he ordered, as his finger nail on his longest finger ripped her membrane open and blood poured down her thighs.

"Can I taste it or would that freak you out?" he asked, removing his fingers.

She shrugged and he lowered his head between her thighs and licked at her clit, and and felt it swell and harden. He licked along her sex and tasted the blood, and returned to her clit and sucked it inside and massaged it with his tongue until she writhed beneath him and gave up her honey to him, and he licked her clean, blood and nectar.

He lay his head on her thighs as she closed them and dropped her legs down onto the bed then he went to wash out the face cloth.

He caught sight of his face in the mirror and smiled as he washed her blood off his cheeks. He came back to clean her up, so much blood on her thighs. Washing her clean, he kissed her lips and she lost the red blush of selfconciousness.

"Why did you do that?" she asked. "Why did you taste the blood?"

"Why did you swallow my semen?" he replied.

"I wanted to taste you," she answered.

"I wanted to taste you,too, in every way," he told her.

"Do I need a shower?' she asked as he patted her skin dry.

"Nope, it's all clean, all gone," he said.

Bella sat up and felt the slight ache from where his fingers had been inside her. There was no more blood so she dressed as he lay there naked, watching her cover her body.

"Come on, you have deflowering to do," she said, grabbing his hand and holding out his boxers and jeans.

Edward slid them on and Bella kissed his member as he tried to pull his pants up his hips.

"Bella, I will never fit into my jeans if you do that," he warned, "then we cannot go to the meadow, then I cannot be inside you."

She sprang back and stood across the other side of the room.

He chuckled and finished dressing.

"Come on, we have to stop at my place to get some condoms, I imagine Emmett will be willing to donate us one or two."

Bella blushed when they walked into the Cullen house, it seemed like everyone would know if he asked Emmett to share.

Voices floated inside from the backyard, the girls were squealing as Emmett and Jasper shook water on their bare backs as they climbed out of the pool and stood over the girls as they sunbathed in the weak Forks sun.

Bella was relieved and she watched Edward go to the second floor and enter his brother's room. He came out holding a strip of silver foil packets and he grinned and folded them up on themselves and put them in his pocket. He grabbed a picnic blanket and a dark red beachtowel and a soft blanket and they headed back to the car and left.

The walk through the forest was more stressful for Bella than knowing what would happen when they arrived. Roots and fallen branches conspired to trip her up and Edward was forever catching her. She was ready, she wanted this.

Edward smiled at her now and then as they walked hand in hand and when they arrived, he stood back and let her look around, watching as she fell in love with the meadow just as he had.

"Who owns this?" she asked.

"My mother left it to me, that's why Carlisle came to Forks. He wanted me to see my inheritance and I think he knew I would want to build my house here."

"How come you inherited?" she asked. "Wouldn't your father get everything she owned?"

"Not if he killed her, he could not benefit from his crime."

"Did he kill her?" she asked.

"I have no idea, I just know this place is mine and she wanted me to have it, and it's nothing to do with him," Edward answered, laying the rug on the ground.

Bella wandered slowly around the almost circular clearing, bordered by a small bubbling stream. The grass was shortish and dotted with wildflowers of every color, mainly red and purple. She liked the two colors together. They would always remind her of this day from now on.

Edward was taking his shirt off, and she walked to him and sat down while he stripped her gently and they lay together naked with the rug covered by the red towel beneath them, their bodies warm under the soft blanket.

"You can tell me to stop any time if you aren't ready, we can come back another day," he said.

"I want this today, we need to do this and make this part of us," she replied.

Edward stroked her all over and she opened her legs and let him stroke her to the point where her body burned for him to enter inside her and fill her up.

Edward reached for his jeans and opened a silver packet and carefully slid the condom on, checking it for tears.

"In future, we will have both condoms and The Pill, protecting us, right?" he said as he slid his latex covered penis along her folds, pushing inside her lower lips.

"I'm going to see your father Monday, in my lunch hour " she promised."Is it okay with you that he will know?"

"I'm sure Carlisle knows this is going to happen, he will just be pleased we are being careful. He has no idea how careful I will always be."

He withdrew and started caressing her, sliding his fingertips across her clit.

"You need to come first before I get inside you, you probably are not going to climax today from proper sex," he said, rubbing her to a state of frenzied need.

"Edward, I, Edward," she stuttered and he smiled and kissed her lips as he felt her come on his hand. When the pulses started to fade he pushed inside, quickly, neatly, right in first thrust and she cried out a little.

"Sorry, it's better this way. It will feel okay in a minute, just relax," he said, stroking her breast with one hand and teasing her clit gently, knowing she was still sensitive.

Once she stopped pulling away and instead began pushing against his hand, he started pulling out, then pushing in again, and soon he was in a rhythm and his brain was threatening to explode, because as good as her blow job and hand actions had been, this was just so much more. His shaft was being squeezed from tip to end and her walls were so close, so tight, it was blowing his mind and he was glad she had already come because this may be the quickest anyone ever came in history.

He groaned as he felt her grab on to him as he pulled out, then he hissed when he pushed back in with a strong thrust.

She bucked her hips up to meet him and he circled her clit with more force. He was proud and amazed when he lasted a full ten minutes before coming hard, seconds after she did.

He immediately pulled out, grasping the edge of the condom and ensuring it came out with him then he pulled it off, laying on the rug, pumping his seed onto the grass beside them.

Until she was on The Pill and it was working, he would not be staying inside her longer than the first pulse as his seed started to force itself from his body.

Bella lay watching him come onto the grass, her eyes hooded. Finally the streams stopped and he rolled and clutched her to him.

"Sorry, I have to withdraw until we have total double cover," he said, kissing the top of her forehead.

"That's fine, but it did turn me on, watching you explode like that," she said.

"Bella, you are so wonderful, I love you to pieces," he said, without thinking. He hadn't wanted to tell her he loved her during sex, it seemed lesser some how, but she didn't seem to care, she simply kissed him and started doing that thing with her tongue around his tongue this time.

He was instantly hard and he wanted her again.

He rolled her over and lifted her upper thigh.

"I want to push in this way, deeper," he said and she became instantly wetter as he sought out her sex and pushed a finger inside.

"I'm ready," she growled and he laughed and bit her shoulder as he opened another packet and sheathed himself, before pushing inside her.

He liked this position, he had her back flush against his chest and he could reach around and caress her breats as he thrust in and out, and he was soon lost with the feelings as their bodies worked together.

"I need more," she said haltingly and he let go of one breast and stroked her clit. She came in seconds, she was so ready and in turn he came straight after her, and he pulled out reluctantly, it felt so awesome as his seed pumped inside the condom while still inside her.

He waited, just one more stream, he promised himself, then stayed for yet another.

He shook his head and came to his senses and carefully withdrew and once again finished coming on the grass.

"That felt amazing, I could feel you coming," Bella said as she rolled onto her back and gave him a view of her breasts as the sun touched her naked skin, and made it shine.

"Dad would probably have some sample packets of The Pill at home, we could go ask him and that way I can stay inside you in two weeks time, every time."

"What are we waiting for?" she asked and he cuddled her and kissed her face.

"I love you, Bella. I know I'm not supposed to say it after sex, but believe me, I truly love you."

"I love you too, Edward, I can't live without you now."

"Not a problem, we will always be together," he promised."Will you promise to say yes when I ask you to marry me the minute we graduate?" he asked.

"College?" she asked.

"High School," he amended.

"Edward, really? You know what they will all think."

Edward held her close.

"You don't know how much I wish they could be right, but Bella, I need you to spend some time thinking about what marrying me will mean. I can never give you a child. Never."

"So all I get is you, forever?" she asked.

"I'm afraid so."

"Then that will be more than I ever hoped for," she replied.

Edward took out the little pink ribbon that was threaded through the lace on the pocket of the blouse Bella had been wearing and tied it around her ring finger. He slid the bow to inside her palm and turned her hand over.

"Look, you are Mrs Edward Cullen from this moment forward," he said, kissing her hand.

The sun was drifting behind the clouds that were covering the sky and he grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. They dressed one another laughingly, and he rolled up the towel, blanket and rug, and pocketed the used condoms inside their silver paper. Most of his semen was on the grass and the sun shone on the wet patch and it shone in rainbow colors.

Better out here on the ground than inside her, starting a monster.


	8. Chapter 8

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 8

Bliss.

For Edward, virtually living with Bella was his nirvana. Charlie dropped in weekly but the house was theirs for all intent's and purposes. They kept it clean, bought the groceries, cooked, locked up when they left for school and came home together looking forward to being alone and allowed to kiss and touch and make love in their own private little lovenest.

The big surprise was when they got a delivery from Port Angeles only furniture store. Charlie had bought Bella a king sized bed to replace the single twin bed she had slept in since her toddler bed had been upgraded when she turned six. It was great to have a bed big enough for Edward's long frame and not to mention, room to move and roll and test for squeaks, but it was more than that. It was complete acceptance from Charlie that they were a legitimate adult couple.

The bedroom was now crowded and they had to rearrange her desk out on the little hallway outside her bedroom door, but they could walk around the bed, just barely, and wasn't a bed all a bedroom needed? They shared her closet so Edward took whatever clothes he wanted to swap home to Esme now and then and replaced them with others. No walk in robe big enough to house a small family here like he had in his own bedroom.

They considered staying in his room but that would take them a step backwards, back to being looked after by his mother, and they loved their independence and freedom Charlie's empty house gave them.

Bella's eighteenth birthday had been a night to remember. The rest of the family wanted to hold a party for her so Edward agreed so long as it was not on her actual birthday. That day and night were reserved, for him.

Alice worked her magic and there was a cake that rivalled most wedding cakes, and Esme made little sandwiches and cooked a dozen types of hot finger food and they all ate and danced into the night, and Bella fell asleep before the party ended, so Edward tenderly carried her upstairs to his bedroom and lay her inside the covers.

Esme watched with tears escaping down her cheeks, she had feared this was all something Edward may never have, and it was everything she had wanted for him. Bella was exactly what he had needed all along, a girl who faced up to life and greeted it head on and didn't flinch or pull her punches, or run away when the going got tough. She had no illusions life was perfect or people were, she just accepted their failings and weaknesses and loved them anyway. Not that Edward was weak or even sad much nowadays, he had laughed and smiled more in this last almost year then in his entire childhood. His teenage years had been quite horrible, with him sunk into depression that seemed endless and the psychiatrist had done his best, and they had tried medications and therapies but nothing had kept the blackness from his door.

Now the blackness was losing the fight at least, a five foot three inch girl had faced it and slapped it's face and told it to leave her man alone.

When she woke the next morning, her actual birthday, Edward had served her breakfast from a picnic basket in the meadow and the time just felt right. They had another year of school left before college but where did it say you could not be engaged at High School?

Bella repacked the basket and lay back on the picnic rug and spread herself out with her hair spread out above her head and her hands gliding over her own body, lightly touching her breasts and belly, and he was distracted for a moment.

No, this was happening before he feasted on his Bella.

He stood and pulled the small velvet box from his pocket. It was the one tangible thing he had inherited other than the land, a ring that had belonged to a grandmother he had never known. It was old fashioned yet pretty, encrusted in small stones and a few tiny diamonds. It was different to the average engagement ring today but Bella was different to the average fiancee so that seemed to make them a match.

Edward stood before her and she sat up , suddenly aware something was up.

He dropped to one knee, wanting to do this right. hopefully this would be the only time he ever knelt in this position and the only time she faced a man on a single bended knee. It had to be perfect.

"Bella Marie Swan, would you do me the incredible honor of agreeing to become my wife sometime in the future, when you are ready," he smirked a little. She would not want to rush down the aisle before High School was over but he needed her to be his. She was so beautiful and she caught the eye of many males, men and boys alike, and Edward needed to stake his claim and know she was his forever.

"I, yes, of course I will," she answered, looking at his face, amazed but ready. He had timed it right!

He slid the ring onto her finger over the grubby pink ribbon that sat there still, and kissed her fingers as the stones glinted and danced in the early sunlight.

Bella was his, forever.

They lay wrapped in one another's arms, not even speaking, their eyes said it all. Hers were shiny though a little blurred with tears of joy, his were triumphant because he had won after all.

Winning when you always thought there was no hope was the best kind of winning, so unexpected, so soul warming. She had changed him then embraced the changed man just as she had accepted the old version.

"I am only eighteen," she reminded him.

"Yes, but I am an old man, too old to be playing the field. I found the only flower I want to pluck," he said with a grin. He was catching on to her sense of humor more and more and she laughed and kissed his face.

"Pluck me, Edward, pluck me hard," she answered, so Edward plucked her, and stayed inside her until they both stopped pulsing completely before he withdrew and tossed the condom.

She was safe, the Pill kept away any chance of the monster winning.

xxx

Bella was an adult now, and Edward would soon turned twenty two, they were not the typical school kids getting up to mischief, they were a proper couple continuing to bond, and learn all about one another.

No subject was off limits and Bella knew every one of Edward's early memories, and never failed him by reacting any new way. He was still surprised, but she was wearing down his every wall and letting in more light. The door was almost fully open wide. There was only one way left to completely open it and Edward was nervous about that one thing only. It was timing, he had to get the timing right. As soon as she showed the slightest sign of wanting to marry him, he would be on it. He cared nothing of what anyone else thought, he would marry her in front of the entire school assembly if she wanted.

Esme insisted they go to the Cullen house for dinner every Monday and Thursday night, but that was their only obligation, and they lived as few High School lovers could.

Of course word had spread like wildfire and soon there was not a student in Forks who didn't know Edward Cullen and Bella Swan lived together.

"It's weird, they are still in school, my mother says it's only to be expected, Bella is no better than her mother. Renee was quite the tramp in her day," Jessica said knowledgeably. Her mother spent hours telling her stories for the 'dozens' of men Renee had slept with and run away with, only to always come back to Charlie.

When Mike Newton found this intriguing, and demanded names, Jess was surprised to realize her mother could only actually name the one, Phil Dwyer, but if Sarah Stanley knew there had been many, then it must be true. Stood to reason.

Once Jessica was enthralling all those around her with tales of Renee's floozy exploits when the students suddenly stilled and became silent, and she turned and found herself face to face with Bella Swan.

"And you know all these facts, how?" she asked.

"Oh my mother has known your parents for like, forever." Jessica replied.

"I do recall my father once mentioning her actually. I believe your gran offered any boy in their Senior Year a second hand car if they would accompany your mother to Prom. She had no takers. I can see your mother would have been quite fascinated in the girls boys actually liked. Your gran had to up the offer to a brand new convertible before your father agreed to take Sarah to Prom. That's true love for you."

"Your mother was a tramp," Jessica yelled, embarrassed the story her gran brought up every Christmas as soon as alcohol crossed her lips was known by others.

"My mother made a mistake and married the first man who asked her and then met her true soul mate," Bella answered. "God knows she is the only woman on the planet to stuff up. Had she waited until she met Phil, none of the mess would have happened, and I wouldn't be here, so excuse me for being glad she made that error in judgement. Charlie has always loved her in a way few of us will ever experience for ourselves."

Edward heard the raised voices and walked over to stand at Bella's side, and offer his support.

"Do we have a problem here?" he asked, staring at a red faced, angry Jessica.

"N,no," she stuttered.

"That's good because we wouldn't want any girl who spends her lunch breaks down the back of the schoolyard in the forest giving all and any takers a blow job for a very reasonable fee, too, I hear, making any judgements about a fellow female who has been with a whole two men in the course of her entire life, would we?"

"Her fee's is not only reasonable, she does it for free if you feel her up afterwards," Mike yelled.

"Not the best business practice, but then, it's your income and your body, who am I to judge?" Edward replied. "We all live our lives as our own consciences dictate."

Bella walked away and the crowd were now discussing Jessica's enterprising hobby, with Eric Yorkie loudly moaning that nobody had ever told him about it, what sort of friends did that make them? He then asked what exactly was a 'reasonable fee' as he checked the amount of change in his pocket and Jess turned and fled the lunchroom.

"How strange, she usually loves attention," Jasper smirked.

"So, what is happening for your birthday next week,Edward?" Alice asked.

Edward frowned.

"I have everything I want already, I don't need a party or presents, I am already as happy as any man gets to be."

"I am going to throw you a Happy 22nd," squealed Alice.

"I'll help, this could be fun," Bella added. "This is the first time I have gotten to be with you on your birthday."

"Maybe we should combine it with a party to celebrate the end of Junior Year, seeing we graduate on your birthday," Alice decided.

"Oh fun," sighed Rose, laying her head on the table.

"Come on Rosie, any excuse for a party," Emmett enthused.

"What's your problem Rose?" Edward asked.

"Don't ask, you don't want to know," she answered darkly.

"I do want to know, you clearly have issues with me being with Bella, so what are they?"

"Look at her, she is pretty, she is popular, she has a great personality, she could have anyone and she is choosing wrong. Why would she hang with someone like you and have to live with all your baggage? She could do so much better."

"Rose," Bella cried. "Edward is the nicest person I have ever met, and you don't even know the real him, so stop talking like this now, please. I know what I am choosing, and it is what I want."

Edward stared at Rose. Once upon a time her words would have cut him to the quick and made him scuttle away, looking for a dark place to hide but Bella had told him something that had finally made him accept himself and his past.

They had been laying on the couch and Edward was fighting with an overwhelming sense of guilt and sorrow which hit him now and then, but far less often since he met Bella.

She had gazed into his eyes and seen the pain.

"Edward, I am going to tell you a little story. It's fictional, but play along. What if I were, say, mid twenties, and I had an ex something, husband, lover, boyfriend, and to this man I had a five year old son. Somehow the child lived with him, and it turned out he was a dangerous and vicious killer, and he treated my son as you were treated by your father, and my son did every single thing you ever did. How would you judge my son? Would you think he was responsible for his actions or would you be able to see that the child was in an impossible situation and had no choices? Would you have me abandon that child if the court returned custody to me after his father was jailed? Would you hate the child and see him as unworthy of love?"

"Of course not," Edward said slowly. She was right, he was judging himself too harshly. He could understand the pain and fear Bella's mythical child was suffering, and he completely wanted to help the child and condemn the father to Hell.

He had recalled her words every time the darkness threatened to enter his soul, and now he could almost throw it off with a single smile and keep his happiness buoyed enough to wait for the sadness to disappear again, without missing a step.

It had become a small, occasional blip, gone too fast to really acknowledge and Bella was the only one who even saw him falter then recover instantly. She would take his hand and kiss him, and tell him how much she loved him, and he would go on.

She had changed the way he saw himself and he finally felt worthy of her love. Rose could not spoil anything, if there was one thing Bella ignored it was other's opinions of her and her choices.

Nobody talked Bella into or out of what she wanted.

If Bella chose you, you knew it was her own choice completely.

Edward smiled at Rose and the girl blushed.

He had ammunition, he knew about her little games she had played in the past with multiple players, his time as an observer rather than a participant before Bella appeared had shown him so many things others missed. He could easily condemn Rose in Emmett's eyes by telling him some of the things she had indulged in, and with whom, and how many at the one time. She wasn't secretly referred to as Triple Treat Hale for no reason.

But he didn't.

He wanted everyone else to be as happy as he was.

He had his Bella, that was the one and only thing that mattered.

xxx

Ted was not happy.

He lay back on his bunk and sucked in a lung full of nicotine. Where his cell had always contained just the one cot, now it had been ripped out and a set of bunks replaced it.

Damn criminals, there were just so many these days now everyone had to double up.

He had elected to choose the top bunk, the idea of someone sleeping above him was just claustrophobic. It had taken years to get used to a 7 by 11 room as it was, now that room was to be shared.

Ted was not worried about who they may put in here with him, all the inmates knew better than to mess with Ted Masen. A few had tried in the early days but the accidents that happened, sadly leaving those same prisoner's horribly injured or even dead soon gained him the necessary respect. Ted was no man's bitch and if he had to bite off any appendages to show them that, so be it.

Danny Grey was a living reminder to anyone who started to get ideas about changing the hierarchy of the prison, the man had to sit down to pee.

Claude Ferguson had a permanently withered arm, had he been a civilian they would have amputated, but the medical services in prison were some what basic. Claude always kept out of Ted's way, all he had were memories of when he had been King Pin here, those days were long gone and the man who took his place still appeared in his nightmares.

"Masen, this is your new cell mate, James, I expect you will make him feel welcome," smirked the warden.

"Sure, come on in James. You and I are going to get on just fine."

The man was more a boy really. Scruffy blond hair tied back like a woman would do her hair.

His body was well muscled, sporting more than a few tattoo's, nothing overstated and he already had something of a rep here. Ted was less displeased, at least they had matched him with a hardass.

No whiny little girl who would wail and cry through the night and keep him awake.

The guards dropped James' books onto the shared desk and smirked. They had wondered if Ted ever took pleasure from any of the young males in here, now they would soon know for sure, buddying him up with a pretty boy.

They amused themselves during night shift watching on cctv as the romances in here blossomed and grew, or ended in tears and trips to the infirmary if the younger lad was not so willing.

"Be careful with my Bible," James said as the guard 'accidentally' knocked all James' possessions to the floor.

"Oh that's right, James here is one of God's special little messenger's, sent to show us all the errors of our ways."

Ted sighed, that was all he needed, the boy better read his book silently and keep his thoughts to himself or he would be crawling about on busted kneecaps.

The door clanged shut and James bent to collect his few belongings.

"Don't even start talking religious bullshit to me, this cell is a bullshit free zone," Ted warned him.

"Oh don't worry, I don't believe anything I read, I am just learning it by rote before my next parole hearing," James replied.

Ted frowned.

James continued:

"Do you know anything of Benny the Breaker? He's quite famous in certain states. I shared a cell with him at St Quentin. Nobody ever thought he would see the light of day again, the man was notorious for leaving a slew of bodies in his wake, not that they could prove much, but he's on the outside now. He 'saw the light' and memorized the whole Bible and guess what, the bleeding hearts let him out because the man had found God. I figure it's as good a scam as any."

"Knowing the Bible got him out?" Ted asked, shocked. Maybe there was something for him in the Good Book after all.

"So tell me more," Ted said suddenly interested.

James climbed up and sat close to him on the bunk.

"They will be watching, I don't know if they can hear us though" he said under his breath.

Ted nodded, he knew his every move was being viewed unless the guard on duty had something better to do, but better safe than sorry.

He pulled out a porn magazine from under his pillow and handed it to James, who made appropriate faces as he flicked through the pages and Ted clapped him on the back and laughed. All normal guy stuff.

"Well, it's not as easy as I may have made it sound, it will take time and dedication, but for instance, if you and I coached one another and broke into hymn singing and made sure we were having our prayer sessions every day and stayed in character, two sorry souls who had found the Lord, then word will get out and next thing we can have the good women of the parish out there badgering for our release.

Probably have to take some shit job working for a God botherer, but freedom is freedom, right?"

"Right, Ted agreed, leaning over and pointing to a tasty ho with an enlarged rack. James whistled and rocked with laughter, and made a show of pointing out a girl back to Ted.

"So, what are you in for anyway?" Ted asked.

"I sometimes get a little carried away during my night visits, it's not only their flatscreens and laptops I steal. If there happens to be a single lady at home, then sometimes she and I will have a little party and you know women, afterwards some of them cry rape and I have to quieten them down. You know how it is."

Ted frowned.

"You rape them in the middle of burglarizing their houses?"

That had never occurred to him. What a lot of wasted opportunities. He killed most of them anyway, why the fuck hadn't he thought like this lad?

"So, what are your future plans when you get out?" Ted asked.

"I figure working for some clergyman will be the perfect cover. Who would ever suspect that nice little Jimmy who helps the fucking poor and elderly? He spends all day chopping wood for their fireplaces and fetching their supplies in and cleaning the leaves out of their gutters. And he sings songs praising their Lord while he works. It will never enter their heads that he comes back and cleans them out at night. In fact he will be outraged when they tell him about it. Course I will have to keep the fun bits separate, and I figure murder should be a last resort. The only accidents that will occur will happen when absolutely necessary. I'm up for strike three next time."

Three strikes and he was here for the term of his natural life and he was just a lad. Smart enough to have a new plan in place though.

"Just wait, you think I look too rough to pull this off, but if I shave every day and get the hair cut short and let it curl like Shirley Temple's and keep it shiny clean and neat and say 'please Ma'am' and "thank you so much, Sir, may the Lord bless you for your kindness' I will be a whole different man. Someone trustworthy and believe me, they love the return of the Prodigal son, there's nothing more they dig than redeeming the irredeemable. They think they are earning points for their own squeaky clean souls. Come on brother, join me in a little chorus of What A Friend We Have In Jesus," James said.

"We have to make this believable, I am going to punch you and tell you to shut the fuck up, you are not going to give up, offer to mention me in your prayers and I will come around in a couple of weeks, but there will be a few black eyes until this little lamb returns to the fold. They wouldn't buy it otherwise."

James jumped down and knelt on the floor and joined his hands in worship, loudly declaring his love for his Maker and Ted threw the magazine at him and called for the guards to 'come shut this son of a bitch up before I kick his ass.'

xxx


	9. Chapter 9

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 9

Here Comes The Bribes.

Bella felt it was time Edward met her mother, even at her worst. He had opened up his Pandora's box to her, she had to show the same trust and hope that he would not look at her parent and fear she would turn out the same.

Unconditional love was the one thing the two of them shared completely and it was tested regularly, maybe it always would be.

Renee looked way older than her years when she was coming out of having been so heavily medicated for months and Edward felt a stab of pain pierce his heart as he looked into her eyes.

He had been there, for years he had lived in that dark hole of pain, and he wished there was some way to help her back, to make her see Charlie was there, always there, and he could be enough if only she could give him a chance and let go of her past.

Phil was gone, long gone, nothing would change that, she needed to take what was on offer and choose to love someone good for her.

Then he realized if he ever lost Bella, there would be nobody he could accept as a substitute and he wanted to cry along with this poor woman. We don't get to choose who we love, if we find our soul mate then all we can do is hope and pray we are both allotted the same life span here on earth, it must seem very much like Hell when it didn't happen that way.

Charlie was anticipating his wife's every need, and was rarely still as he offered her a drink, gave her the medication to swallow, plumped her pillows, or adjusted the blinds to make sure the light was not too invasive.

Love in it's purest form, given without hope of reciprocation.

Edward felt humbled by the man in front of him. What a life, truly loving someone else far more than you loved yourself, and putting her needs so far above his own, it was mind boggling.

Could he ever love Bella like that if she chose someone else over him?

He thought he would but how did one know something like that unless put in that position.

"We should go," Bella said quietly. Edward trusted her judgement, she knew Renee better than he did, and no doubt knew when the woman had endured enough.

"It was really nice to meet you, Renee," he said, taking the hand she held out to him.

"I wish we could have met at a better time, I hope to be home with Charlie and my girl for Christmas, you will come see me then, won't you?" she replied.

"Of course, I shall be looking forward to it. Look after yourself,' he said, kissing her cheek impulsively, without forethought.

Charlie shook his hand, and walked to the door.

"Don't forget, the air conditioner needs it's annual overhaul, that happens December 21st, they will bill me, I will pay everything on Friday as usual."

"I can do that, Dad. Save you coming home," Bella offered. She and Edward always went out on a date on Friday nights so Charlie got to relax in his own house for a single evening each week, and watch his team play on the tv.

"It's fine, I need to keep my hand in," Charlie replied.

"He means he needs one evening away from the crazy and to catch his team," Renee said with a smile.

Bella was relieved, it was almost over until next July 4th. Renee was adjusting again and back with them most of the time. She didn't really need Charlie at night but everyone had gotten comfortable with the way things were, she and Edward loved 'their' house and Charlie loved the extra time with his wife.

"So, Junior year ends in a week," Charlie commented. "Are you kids doing anything in the break?"

"I hoped to take Bella away on a road trip, to meet some of Carlisle's family, and to show her Canada and maybe Alaska."

Bella hugged her Mom and looked up.

"Canada? Alaska? Relatives? God, I don't do well with strangers. You will be sorry."

"I was a stranger once and you did just fine with me," Edward replied.

Bella blushed and her parents both laughed, so Edward dragged her out the door and into his car.

"You made me sound like some tramp," she growled.

"There's nothing wrong with being a tramp with one man, especially if he is the man you are going to marry," Edward replied.

"Do we have to do this, meet the relatives? I really hate meeting strangers," she answered.

"Hmm, well, what else could we do for break? If only there was something that took all our time and attention and we had things to plan and organize and no time to visit strangers," he said.

"Is this your way of blackmailing me into getting married?" Bella asked.

"Is it working?" he replied.

"Edward Cullen, you are just a bully in disguise."

"Bella, what difference would it make if we got married? We live together but once Renee comes home we have to part and be the younger generation in our houses again, I don't want to go back to that. It's okay for you but I am 22 years old in seven days. I should be finding a place of my own and living as an adult, and I only know how to do that with you with me. Marry me, and we can start planning our house and have it built before we go away to college. Wouldn't you enjoy coming back each term break to our very own house?"

"Keep bribing me, I already decided we can get married now but what other bribes do you have in mind? Can we have a pool? I might marry you for a pool."

"In Forks? We hardly use the one at Carlisle's as it is. Maybe an indoor pool?" he said.

"Then for an indoor pool I will agree to go to Vegas tonight," Bella said.

"Really, the cost of your hand in marriage is an indoor pool? You don't want to hang out for more? Maybe a home gym, and a spa in the bedroom?"

"I just assumed any house we designed would have all that," she replied.

Edward had another reason for wanting her to marry him now. When they graduated from High School and applied for colleges, Charlie's limited funds would restrict her choices to only the cheapest universities and he had to know she would be attending the same one as he did. If she was his wife, he could pay for her and she couldn't argue, especially if they had been married an entire year by then. Marriage was the perfect solution to everything.

"So, what have you decided? A wedding or a road trip to meet twenty one members of Carlisle's extended family? Including Tanya Denali, whom I should warn you, fancies the pants off me despite us being sort of cousins. She will be green with envy when she finds out you got into my pants and she never managed it. She may scratch your eyes out."

"Okay, I choose the wedding, I kind of want to keep my eyes. That and the pool, that's the only reasons. I guess I will just have to endure you coming with the deal."

"Sorry about that, no Edward equals no pool."

"Fine then, unleash the hounds, let Esme and Alice do all the grunt work, I will turn up for dress fittings but nobody had better ask me what color table napkins or it's off and I go get my eyes scratched out instead."

"I could never cope with those beautiful eyes being hurt in any way so I guess we are forced to do the wedding. Do you want to talk to Renee and Charlie before we choose a date? The ceremony can be in Carlisle's backyard and the reception in their house so no need to try and book any venues. They won't need to do a thing but turn up, and your father has to give you to me."

"I think Mom would cope best if we spring it on her once everything is planned and Charlie asks me every Friday while you are in the shower getting ready for our date if we are married yet. I don't think he will be even slightly surprised."

"Okay, then let's go talk to Mom and Hurricane Alice. Think it through, are you sure there's nothing you want to have control over? The guest list, the ceremony, the reception?"

"Nope, so long as you are waiting for me at the front of the aisle, I don't care if nobody else or the entire town turns up."

"Bella, you are so different, you know Rose and Alice subscribe to every bridal magazine written in the English language and spend half their lives changing their minds about exactly how their weddings will be?" he asked.

"I thought of being like that then I realized it would bite into our sex times so I decided I liked sex too much to go all bridey. Does it bother you that I am not like other girls my age?" she asked.

"Not if you choose sex over wedding planning, funnily enough that suits me just fine. Whatever happens, you know it will be an amazing wedding."

"Yes, I imagine Alice knows her stuff," Bella said.

"I meant, you will be the bride, how much more amazing could things be?"

"Oh I just thought of something. If we get married before school goes back, I can write Bella Cullen on my pencil case! I never wrote any boys names on my pencil cases like the other girls, and it will be my own real name, not the name of the latest boy to catch my eye. I like that idea. You have to buy me a new pencil case for Christmas, something classy seeing it will have your surname on it."

"And I was worried I wouldn't be able to talk you into getting married. All I had to do was mention pools and pencil cases. I must pass this tip onto Jasper and Emmett."

"Oooh, I believe Rose may expect more than a pencil case. Probably a castle and maids and footmen," Bella replied.

xxx

"Getting married? This break?" Carlisle repeated like some dozy parrot. "I wondered what took you so long, I thought maybe you were eloping on your birthday seeing you waited this long and didn't elope on Bella's birthday. That cost me fifty bucks, by the way."

"I told you they weren't ready yet on her birthday, they weren't even engaged and I knew Edward would want to do everything traditionally, if you listened to me you wouldn't lose so many bets," Esme replied.

"Well, I believe I predicted the wedding would happen this break, I win the money in the kitty anyway," Jasper joined in.

"Unfair, Alice 'saw' and told you," Rose growled.

"Rats, I didn't see it happening until after High School finished, I really thought Bella would be all 'I'm not getting married in High School, everyone will think I'm preggers'," said Emmett.

"Everyone will assume I'm pregnant, how much fun will that be? I will have the boys carrying my books and Jessica writing about my coming child in the gossip column in the school magazine. Just make sure she thinks the 'baby' is due seven months after the wedding. I can stuff a cushion up my uniform in time," Bella joked. "Alice, you have to talk to her and pretend to try and convince her not all pregnancies take a full nine months. Tell her this is the shorter version. She will be so convinced I conceived before the wedding and so let down when no baby arrives."

"Go into labor in the girls change rooms one afternoon after gym and make sure only you and Stanley are still there, she will shit herself," Emmett chortled.

"Could one person act slightly surprised, please," Edward asked.

Alice jumped to her feet and grabbed her cellphone.

"Yes, Alice Cullen here, have you finished that dreamy wedding dress in the Chantilly lace I ordered yet? Good, I will be in to collect it shortly. Have a selection of bridal veils available. Thank you."

She turned to Bella.

"I am going to guess you won't wear a decent set of heels so we need to find a compromise. Shoes with a lowish heel so you don't faceplant but they have to match the style of your wedding gown."

"I have a wedding gown?" Bella asked.

"Of course you have a gown, I designed and ordered it a while ago."

"When exactly?" Bella asked.

"When Edward took you on your first date and he didn't come home all night. I knew then you were definitely The One, though I guess I knew that already. Rose, you are still good to do her make up for the wedding?"

"Of course. I got in all the things you ordered, I'm not sure about the blush though, Bella blushes so much it will be superfluous."

"Nah, she might go all pale and panicky, we need the blush."

"Good point, we can have it on hand for emergency blushing."

"Is there nobody here surprised?" Edward asked.

Esme patted his hand.

"Oh Edward, what a wonderful surprise, I never saw this coming," she said, kissing his cheek.

"Thank You, Mom, that's why I love you and hate all of them," he said darkly.

"Explain to your eldest son why you have a newly made 'Mother of the Groom' outfit waiting in the closet," Carlisle said.

"You really don't like sex, do you Carlisle? You will enjoy the six week break that just earned you, right?" Esme replied.

Bella escaped from Alice's clutches and ran to Edward and threw herself into his arms.

"You get to do anything you want to me all night long if you just fake a heart attack or something and get us out of here. I will barf if I have to look at one more magazine full of table settings," she whispered in his ear.

Edward stood up, and coughed.

"We have to go, Bella is so desperate to get me into bed she is worried she will strip off right here and have her way with me, so goodbye," he said, carrying her to the door.

"No, wait, I can get the camera and have this on Youtube," Emmett yelled as they fled to the car.

"That was not nice, you were a bad boy," she growled.

"You said fake a heart attack, or something. That was my something. The truth, face up to it Swan, you wanted to seduce me."

"Fine but your punishment is we get to do what I want all night long now. Get your tongue into gear Edward, it is going to be very tired by morning."

Edward grinned and drove a little faster. Nobody would give him a ticket knowing he was engaged to the Chief's daughter anyway.

Bella's cell buzzed.

"Alice, do not mention tableware or I hang up. Oh, sorry. Edward, we didn't choose a date for the wedding. She kind of needs to know."

"Oh you choose, I don't care so long as it is soon."

"Edward's birthday. Sure you can, you do miracles everyday and I have the dress already, right? And you have that party planned, just shake it up a bit. Thanks Alice, geez, calm down, I don't know why you are acting so hysterical."

She closed the cell and grinned.

"Happy Birthday Edward, This will get me out of buying you socks, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, no socks, clothing will be banned once we leave the reception anyway so don't waste your money on socks."

"We really need to make this a night to remember, I have a feeling Alice will have her revenge by making us do all sorts of wedding stuff between now and your birthday so make it good, Edward. We may need to carry the memories in our heads for a while."

"Then I will simply handcuff you to me and she will have to send us everywhere together and we will figure out a way to have road sex while I drive."

"That's what I like about you, Cullen, there's never a problem you can't find a creative solution to."

xxx

Morning broke and Bella opened her mouth and tried to unglue her tongue. Edward had exercised his tongue extensively in the night but so had she, and she needed water.

"Where you going?" Edward mumbled as she lifted his arm off her.

"My mouth tastes like the bottom of a budgies cage," Bella answered.

"My mouth tastes like you, I win," Edward replied.

"Want water?" she asked, padding naked to the fridge downstairs.

"Motherfucker, what are you doing here?" she yelled and Edward sprang up and grabbed a towel to put around his waist.

Alice was sitting at the table with a dozen pairs of shoes, and she simply sat Bella down on a chair and started trying them on her feet, ignoring her nakedness.

"This pair are Louboutin's, so they may be a little higher than you were thinking. The Manolo Blahnik's might be better. Stand up, how can we judge if you are sitting down?" she said crossly. "Walk, Bella, pretend this is the aisle."

"The naked aisle," Edward chortled. "I like it."

"Edward, get me a towel or a robe or something, please."

"Bella, I am not looking at your obviously desecrated body, just walk will you."

Bella kicked the shoes off and ran up the stairs and slammed the bathroom door shut.

"What's her problem?" Alice asked.

"I imagine she is embarrassed you saw her naked and recently defiled," Edward answered, putting the coffee pot on to brew. "She will calm down once she is showered and dressed."

"That girl has too many hang-ups, I have seen naked before. I was naked myself last night."

"Bella's not quite as liberal as you, Alice."

"Does she know you have seen me naked?" Alice asked.

"No, and that's a can of worms I don't intend opening, I did ask you to put on a robe, remember."

"You had a look though," Alice answered.

"Alice, I woke up on the couch and you were shaking my shoulder telling me to get up and get ready for school. I could hardly miss you."

"Oh Edward, admit I at least made you want to look at other girls naked."

"It may have peaked my interest to see Bella sans clothing," he admitted.

"Oh so I am just some stand in for Alice," Bella said, walking in dressed in a maxi dress.

"Yeah, if she wasn't my sister and Jasper's girl..." Edward answered, catching Bella and kissing her deeply.

"He never fancied me, he told me my boobs were uneven," Alice growled. "Like these puppies are less than perfect."

"Keep your top on, please," Edward cringed.

"So you saw Alice naked before you saw me naked? You realize now you owe me one perv at another naked man, and you can't object."

"That's right, she has a free naked man perv pass now," Alice agreed."Who are you going to perv on? Jasper is worth a look, Emmett, well it's a bit frightening, I mean, he is very large and it stands to reason he would be very large ALL over."

"Rose already described that to me in great detail, it would be kind of a letdown if he wasn't as humongous as I am picturing him , now."

"Maybe Carlisle then, the man is still pretty, he would probably be pretty awesome naked," Alice suggested.

"Alice, he is your father for all intents and purposes," Edward growled.

"Not a blood relation, I can live with it," Alice replied.

"I think I will keep my pass to use at a date yet to be announced," Bella stated.

"Good idea, if Edward ever comes home and catches you with a naked man, you can just cash your pass in," Alice laughed.

"Can we do the shoe thing and let Bella and I get back to our naked pursuits please," Edward said gruffly. "Come upstairs when you are done and my sister has gone, we have one last lesson on the dobro before you play for Renee, remember. We don't want that forgotten in all the wedding hysteria."

They heard him shower, and then he returned to Bella's bedroom and took her steel guitar down and played quietly to himself.

"I need a love to keep me happy, I need a love to keep me happy, Baby, baby keep me happy," drifted downstairs.

"He's playing "Happy" by the Rolling Stones," said Alice gleefully.

"That's good?" Bella asked.

"You missed the black years with Edward, when all he played was Jeff Buckley-ish slit my wrists music. It was bad, Bella. Now he plays happy tunes, like 'Happy', it doesn't get better than that. Know this, you saved his life. He was not that far from topping himself. I saw plenty of people who had attempted suicide in the rest home, believe me, I know the look. He was a downwards cutter in the making. No cry for help, he wanted out.

Once Jas and I got together, and Emmett found Rose, it was only a matter of time. I only saw two possible futures for Edward. He would kill himself, that's the image I always got until you came along, then I got two. You walking down the aisle towards him, or the other old image, and it faded fast. Boy, did it fade fast. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you two started sleeping together pretty quickly once you started dating, because that's when the old image went completely blank and only the wedding one remained."

"I guess we did kind of rush into it but I had never been touched before, Alice, I was sick of waiting. I had never been attracted to anyone like I was to Edward, still am, he makes me want things nobody else ever did."

"Not kids though," she said, looking at her friend closely.

"Edward refuses to consider ever having a child so that's one thing I refuse to think about. I love him so much, Alice, it seems like a small sacrifice for his happiness. I would never want to burden him down with anything he felt so strongly was wrong for him. I can live without babies though be prepared, I may not be the ideal aunt and offer to babysit. I imagine I will either ignore the children you and Jas have, and Emmett and Rose, or be all over them and want them to do sleepovers and keep buying them kittens and shit. I truly don't know how I will feel in the future when you and Rose become mothers."

"I don't see either of us with children, if that helps."

"Really? Carlisle and Esme will never be grandparents?"

Alice looked uncomfortable.

"My visions can change, it depends on decisions and circumstances. I see Rose attending fertility clinics for years and I see Jas and I deciding I have had enough stress in my life. We haven't even discussed kids yet, it's just what I have seen in the future."

"Well, I guess if none of you have kids, it will be easier for me. My job is to keep Edward happy, Alice, and I will never risk putting him back in the bad place."

"Pure love, unconditional love," Alice replied.

xxx

Bella shut the front door behind Alice and ran upstairs and gasped when she opened the bedroom door and Edward was sitting on her bed, playing music, completely naked.

"Miss Swan, just in time for your final lesson."

He placed the dobro on the metal stand he had bought for it and faced her, holding out his arms. Bella walked to him, wondering what was happening, and he stripped the dress off her.

"Oh my favorite underwear," he said when he saw she was not wearing any at all.

He kissed her breasts and sat down, sitting her on his lap reverse cowgirl style, impaling her as she lowered herself onto him. He lay back on the pillows he had placed halfway down the bed.

"Now, I won't move a muscle until you get the whole song right, so play, my Bella, then I will move all the muscles you want me to."

Bella played 'Ruby' perfectly the first try. It's amazing what a bribe can do to a girl.

**Please review if reading, I may go back and work on the others if this isn't attracting many readers. Smiley face or one word reviews are fine.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks for reviews, I just need to justify updating this daily because it's my favorite and I know I'm neglecting my other stories!**

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 10

Renee sat in Charlie's sitting room and gazed about her. The house was lovely and clean and Bella had put vases of wildflowers in every room downstairs. Her mother knew how much her daughter and husband needed her to cope with life and be normal, but the one factor she could never accept was how Phil had died for nothing. No reason at all. There was no benefit to the world by his death.

If there had been, she could have clung to that and had reason to accept her lot and move on.

Poor Phil, he had always wanted to do the right thing and help anyone and his one weakness was thinking everyone else was as good at heart as he was. His motto was always, let me assume you are good until you prove to me otherwise.

"Renee, can I make you some tea? Bella has requested we sit in here and watch something she has learned to do, just for you."

"Okay, what is though, Charlie? You know I hate surprises, I can't cope with not knowing ahead of time."

"Renee, trust me, it will be fine. It's a good surprise. It's about music, you always loved music. This is something you always wanted to happen."

Renee thought about his words.

About music and she always wanted it to happen? She had taken Bella to piano lessons a couple of times but her illness had recurred before the girl got the hang of the piano and anyway, there was no piano here in the house.

The dobro!

Bella walked in and Edward set that same instrument on a stand and Bella stood behind, putting the finger and thumb picks on and Edward sat down on an armchair and picked up his guitar from beside it.

"Mom, I know you always wished Phil had lived long enough to teach me to play this, so Edward taught me instead. I hope you like this, it's the only song I can play so far but I will keep learning."

Charlie handed Renee the cup of tea and she put it absently down on a coffee table and sat in anticipation as the two musicians counted down and grinned at one another.

Ruby, oh Phil loved Ruby! He played that so often, Bella must have remembered, somehow.

Edward's voice was not unlike Phil's, Renee shut her eyes and let the music wash over her and take her back to the time that would always be the very best time of her life.

Charlie stood by, hands on hips, an odd tear escaping at the sight of Renee smiling so beautifully. It was one of the few moments he wished death for her. If she died now in the middle of this song, she would die happy, and all Charlie had ever wanted was Renee's happiness.

Dying was easy, living was so much harder.

The room was silent when they finished and Bella looked hopefully at her mother, her mind torn between thinking she had given the woman a precious gift and fearing she had sent her mother back to the dark place.

Renee opened her eyes and and stood up. Silent tears coursed down her cheeks as she walked toward her daughter.

Bella ducked around from behind the dobro and met her mother half way and the two hugged in a way they had not for years now.

"I felt him there beside me, Bella. Phil was here. You and Edward brought him back to me for those few minutes. Thank you."

She beckoned Edward to join the hug, then turned to Charlie.

"Come on, come share some love, Charlie," she said and he needed no second urging, he was there.

The four stood together for a long moment and Edward felt proud of Bella and himself, they had done good.

He knew how much little things things meant when you were in the dark place. Esme had slipped into his room some nights when he was racked with endless pain and sat beside him, not speaking, just holding his hand, or rubbing his back if he was lying down and the touch of a fellow human had given him the strength to get up the next day and force his legs to run as he circled Bear Pathway alone. Had he not circled Bear Pathway, he would have never literally run into Bella.

"You two should be getting to school, graduation tomorrow," Charlie reminded them. Renee would either stay in this happy mood or melt down any minute.

Bella and Edward got the hint.

"Mom, Dad, by the way, after Junior grad tomorrow we are getting married. I know it's short notice but we kind of decided at the last minute. You will give me away, Dad?"

"Bella, I don't have a suit. I haven't worn a suit..."

"Alice has taken care of everything. She put your new tux in your closet and she will be here later today to check it doesn't need altering. Mom, she hung a selection of Mother of the bride outfits in your closet, you just need to choose one."

"I'm not even slightly surprised," Charlie admitted.

"I am, I assumed they were already married," Renee replied.

Edward scowled, could there not be one person on the planet who had not seen this coming? Did they have it tattooed on their foreheads or something?

"It's in your eyes, Edward," Renee explained, and he smiled.

"See you after school then," Bella said kissing them both.

"I will have a small surprise waiting, nothing much," Renee answered and went out to wave them off with Charlie.

"Such a nice boy, I kind of wish we had also had a son," she said as Charlie circled his arms around her.

xxx

"We did the right thing, right?" Bella checked with Edward again as they sped towards Forks High.

"Bella, she loved it, We gave her a moment with Phil, God knows handing her the Crown Jewels would pale along side that."

"Do you think Charlie will ever be enough for her?" Bella asked.

Edward shook his head slowly.

"I can tell you, Bella, sometimes it's really hard to find a reason to go on living when you have nobody, maybe Charlie being there is the reason she never..."

Bella blanched.

"God, Edward, you don't think?"

"I don't," he hastily assured her. He knew the look, Renee stopped short of the look. He had seen the look every morning, staring back at him from the mirror in the days before Bella exploded into his head and life.

Renee was in the dark place a lot but never in actual Hell. He would have seen her there had she been.

"A single person can make all the difference. I thought about the ultimate solution a lot, I guess the main reason I never quite crossed the line was, I was trying to choose my method and I wanted to go in a way that least hurt Esme. I thought maybe an accident while hiking in the forest, or stepping in front of a car during one of my runs. Then I realized I couldn't do that to the driver. So, I was actually planning every necessary contingent for my fatal hike injury the morning you spoke to me. It took me a while to get back into my own head and then accept you were indeed talking to me.

I had cleaned my bedroom and everything. I didn't expect to walk into it again."

Bella gazed at him and knew it was true, and that she could never do anything to let him go back into the grips of those feelings ever again, not as long as she lived.

xxx

Jasper looked lost and alone without the pixie at his side and he flopped into a chair at their lunch table and looked at his brother and almost sister.

"You miss Alice, it's only one day, she has things to do," Rose said, dropping her bag and pulling out her chair.

Emmett placed an overloaded try into the center of the table and started working his way from the meals on the edge, inwards.

"God, you will never fit down the aisle if we wait much longer," Rose said crossly.

"Rosie, my darling, like you said, once this pair get hitched and the attention can all be redirected your way, we will do it. Unlike some people, we will be graduated from High School when we take our vows."

"You do realize I could not give a crap about what anyone else thinks?" Bella said.

"Oh I think we all know that by now," Jasper laughed. "Nobody throws Bella Swan a curve ball."

"Say it again... Bella Swan. I will never be Bella Swan again after tomorrow. I can't wait to come back here next year as Bella Cullen. So much nearer the top of the namelist at rollcall."

"So that's why you are marrying him," Jas said with a grin.

"Nope, there is a pencil case involved," Bella replied.

"A pencil case?" queried Jasper.

"Jasper, Edward offered to buy her a pencil case in return for marrying him, clearly. She is Bella Swan, she would see the sense in that. Don't ask questions, this pair make my head ache as it is," Rose moaned.

"Thanks for doing my make up tomorrow even though you don't approve of the marriage," Bella said sincerely.

" I have given up not approving, I have come to the conclusion you and Edward are perfect for one another," Rose replied.

"Thank you, Rose," replied Edward.

"Oh it's not a compliment, nobody else on earth could stand living with you but I see now, nobody could cope with Bella either. You two were joined in a single soul before you came here and it's only when you are together again either of you makes a lick of sense. The world needs you two together so the rest of us can go on with our own lives."

"Alice told me they were twin souls, separated and now reunited," Jasper said with a puzzled look on his face.

"Duh, that's obvious," Emmett said around a hamburger.

"So, we should go, I have an appointment with your sister and you will be there holding my hand as I scream," Bella told Edward.

Edward looked confused.

"Oh fuck, think of all things from Brazil, including 'hair' styles," Jasper laughed, pointing below his own belt.

Edward paled at the thought, he had heard Rose screaming when Alice had 'attended' to her monthly waxing.

"You don't need to do that, I don't expect you to go through pain to marry me," he hastily told Bella.

"Oh you want her to, believe me," Emmett grinned. "So smooth, so good, no hair stuck between you teeth," he stated as Rose slapped him across his head but his skull was so thick he barely felt the blow, and he looked around to see what annoying insect had bumped into him.

xxx

Bella shifted in her car seat and Edward cringed and hoped she would be fully recovered by tomorrow night because he really wanted to check out the new improved ladyscaping. His head was full of images and he wished they could elope tonight but the punishment would be severe and long lasting. Alice would probably stab them both every time she saw them until the day they died.

He could last one night and anyway, Bella was clearly not interested in being touched tonight.

He pulled into the Swan driveway and smiled at the thought of never having to bring Bella home again. After tomorrow, home for her would be wherever he was. They were going to live in the Cullen house until their own house was built. The plans had been drawn up and building approval was due to come through this very day so construction would begin soon. Promises of bonuses all round had the building crew chomping at the bit to get started.

Bella wanted modern, clean, lots of glass, she loved Edward's bedroom and wanted a house raised off the ground, with practically all glass walls to the outside, even their bedroom, which would contain their bathroom with only the powder room enclosed.

Edward had suggested at least tinted glass, he didn't enjoy the thought of hikers seeing his Bella naked in their spa in the bedroom, or when she was doing anything else naked. Her naked was for his eyes only.

Bella had shrugged and answered "whatever," so he had immediately requested one way glass , they would be able to see out but the windows would reflect the light back and make the outside completely mirrored.

"Rosie will spend every visit outside so she can stare at herself," Emmett had chortled and copped a slap for his wit.

The whole house was to be surrounded with a deck that extended out about twenty foot, they would live outside as much as the weather permitted, and enjoy the privacy the meadow would provide.

Underneath was one large open room with the promised swimming pool in the center. There would be areas for his weight equipment that he admittedly rarely used, and the only enclosed space would be the garage where his and her cars would sit.

Bella didn't know it yet but he had bought her a car as a wedding gift. She would protest and say the bracelet or whatever she bought him was now looking cheap and shabby but she had given him far more than he could ever give her, she had given him a life.

A life he wanted so badly now, so desperately that nothing would ever allow those thoughts to breathe life again.

While Bella existed in this world, he would never leave it voluntarily.

She was his life now.

Renee welcomed them inside and called them to sit at the table.

Bella grinned and kissed Edward's cheek.

"Oh you are blessed, Mom has made her specialty. This is a very rare honor, Edward, you don't realise that, but it's epic."

Renee blushed and pulled the steaming apple pie from the oven, and cut it unto four.

Charlie rushed in and claimed his seat, not bothering to even pause to hang up his side arm.

"Bella, be a dear and get the accompaniments," Renee asked and her daughter jumped up and returned to the table and placed the container of ice cream and the bowl of freshly whipped cream on the table.

"Edward, apple pie? With?"

she asked.

"Yes please, it's my favorite," he answered. "I can't decide, the ice cream looks great but fresh cream, you don't see that much nowadays when everyone buys it in a can."

"Edward, you don't have to choose, Mom always serves both ice cream and cream with apple pie," Bella explained.

xxx

"Okay, come on Bella, we have the dress, the shoes, the underwear," Alice said and winked at her friend. "Such as it is. It's kind of non existent, hardly could be termed underwear really.

"Oh why can't I just get dressed here, in the house I grew up in? Isn't that a tradition or something?"

"Sure, if the house you grew up in has a massive bathroom with a dressing table with lights all around, do you have that here, Bella Swan?" Alice demanded.

"No," she sighed.

"Well then, who knows best, I think we all know the answer to that, don't we, ladies? Say it all together now, 'Alice knows best.' "

"Alice is a completely irritating little know-it-all," answered Rose, holding the car door open for Bella.

Renee and Charlie kissed their daughter and reluctantly let her go.

Alice and Rose would do an amazing job getting her ready, they knew that, and they would meet her at the marquee afterwards, when she had been transformed into the most beautiful bride Forks had ever seen. Then Charlie would get to do his piece, and walk her down the aisle to her true love.

"Charlie, you need to shave and get that suit on," Renee reminded him, pulling him inside. The car was long out of sight, the curve in the road made that so.

He sighed and let his wife drag him along.

A suit.

He had not put on a suit since, well, since Phil's funeral but better to remember his wedding to Renee, the only other time he had worn one.

He had thought all his Christmases had come at once when she agreed to marry him. He had been shocked, to be honest. Much as he loved and adored her, he had always felt she saw him more as 'Mr Right Now' rather than Mr Right.

Time had proved that to be true.

The very minute she laid eyes on Phil Dwyer, Charlie had just ceased to exist for her, even though they shared a baby together.

Charlie knew she measured her time with Phil in days, but she didn't know he also measured his time with her that way as well.

Renee of the 500 days.

Only half of what Henry the Eighth shared with Anne Boyelyn, at least that woman got a thousand days.

He had met Renee, fallen in love, convinced her he was not the worst catch in town and married her, gotten her pregnant and enjoyed that little honeymoon period when he was convinced they had been blissfully happy, then it started to unravel and next thing, poof, all over.

500 days.

500 days of her being his.

He allowed Renee to fuss over him and help him get ready, and then he went downstairs and switched on the flatscreen and drank a beer very slowly to calm his nerves.

He hoped to God this marriage would last because he for one lacked what it took to go through this stress again.

xxx

"Bella, shut your eyes," Alice squealed as they turned into the Cullen driveway. Damn menfolk had not followed her strict instructions and left yet and Edward could not lay eyes on Bella today of all days. He had his back to them so it was safe for the minute. He had spent his last night single in his old bedroom as Alice had insisted. He in turn had refused any form of bachelor party. He wanted this marriage, those parties were for men who were regretting leaving their single days behind, and often led to drunken infidelity, something he would not risk.

"Jasper, cover his eyes," she screamed out the window and saw the boys laugh and comply.

"Right, now walk him into the garage and keep him there until I give the word," she ordered.

Rose helped Bella in her mad dash inside and up the stairs.

"Crisis averted, Alice, they can go," Rose bellowed down to the pixie girl.

"Keep her away from the window, you know she will try and see him," Alice shouted back. Edward had not even been allowed to see Bella accept her certificate for finishing Junior year this morning. Edward didn't need to personally accept his own, Alice took it for him, and she ignored his protests at wanting to be there for Bella. Next year was the big deal, with the robes and hats and everything, he would be there for that.

Rose shrugged, wasn't it just the groom who couldn't see the bride? There were no rules about the bride seeing the groom as far as she knew, but Edward had already had more than his share of bad luck, so she forced Bella to go further upstairs, onto the third level where only Edward's bedroom was. Although much of the walls were floor to ceiling glass, they faced the backyard and forest so she could not see the driveway.

"Thanks for helping out today, Rose," Bella said, sitting in the middle of her favorite big brass bed. They would sleep in this bed every night now until their own house was built, once they returned from their honeymoon. They had all break, she presumed Edward would want to use up every day somewhere exotic and private, even though they both knew each other's bodies better than they knew their own. That didn't mean they wouldn't be spending a lot of time just kissing every inch of one another. This would be a honeymoon to remember, she and Rose had looked on the internet for something new to spring on Edward. Of course that meant Bella had to listen to tales of what Rose and Emmett had done together, but at least she didn't feel self conscious around Rose for being intimate with Edward so fast.

Although they still had Senior year to go, College would be demanding so she supposed they would not be back that often once they went away to whatever college they both got accepted into, but she looked forward to being able to legitimately call this her bedroom as well as his.

"Oh my God, I am marrying my first love. Edward's shower," she explained to a bewildered Rose. "I fell in love with this shower days before I fell in love with Edward," she explained.

"Tell me you are not marrying the man just to gain custody of the plumbing," answered Rose."What the heck, if that's what you see in him, I say go for it, I will never tell your dirty little secret."

Bella walked to the bathroom and stripped off her sweatpants and hoodie and the boring underwear she would probably never bother wearing again. From now on every pair of panties had to be designer, so she would always be ready if her husband wanted to see them or better still, fondle her inside them.

She liked being fondled by Edward, it was her favorite past time. One of them.

The water cascaded over her and she washed her hair according to the instructions Alice was now barking at her from the other side of the shower screen.

xxx

Renee opened the door and walked into Charlie's bedroom, she always thought of this room as his. She wasn't part of it even though she slept here sometimes. It had been her bedroom too once, once upon a time, before she tried to leave and grab onto the life she really wanted.

Two hundred days, that's how long her perfect new life had lasted. From the day she scooped her daughter from her crib and took her away from the green and the wet and the cold, and into the sun and the dry heat and the happiness that was life with Phil Dwyer.

Red brown, everything in Phoenix Arizona is red brown. The dirt, the trees, the plants are just touches of green here and there, a cactus, a tree but not a whole forest. You don't need a forest to be happy, sometimes one tree is all you need.

If it's the right tree.

She had regrets, of course she had regrets.

She should have told Phil the very minute she saw the positive pregnancy test but she wanted to make an occasion of it, like always. She wanted to settle Bella down in her crib for the night, serve Phil's favorite roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, God knows how a true American through and through ever became so fond of a strictly British dish, but he had.

She didn't even know how, come to think of it. Another conversation they were robbed of. You think you have time, you have forever, but when forever is a mere two hundred days, there are not that many conversations.

She knew enough to know he was The One for her, and at the time that seemed like the only important thing.

Of course, over the weeks and months and years they would have learnt everything there was to know about one another, all they knew was they fell in love at first sight, it was possible, and their love had been the true and enduring kind.

They would have raised Bella and that baby right and maybe other babies, Renee wanted a whole houseful of Phil's children. Girls with his blue eyes, boys with his dirty blond hair, she had imagined them all.

Felicity Jane, named after his mother, Mathew James after his father.

Georgiana after his sister who died when he was small, but he remembered her and told Renee so many stories about how happy he had been when she was born and he was no longer an only child. How happy the family had become with a small, pretty enchanting baby girl at the center of attention.

She was glad he remembered the happiness because he also remembered the bitter sadness when that same ray of sunshine fell ill and died.

Just like that, he said.

She had cried in the night and his mother had walked the floor with her, explaining the baby was teething and the new teeth hurt her gums. He was taken to school that day by his father, instead of his mother, she always took him to school, and took the opportunity to take the little sister out in the pram.

He remembered thinking the whole day felt wrong, being driven with father instead of walked with mother, kissing Georgiana goodbye on her tear streaked cheek, waiting outside the school at the end of the day but nobody came for him, not mother with the pram, not father with the car.

He walked home alone in the end and there they were, crying at the table.

His sister had been very ill and Mom had taken her to the hospital but too late, far too late and she was gone.

Just like that.

He would have been so happy to know he was getting a little child of his own, maybe a new little Georgiana.

She only needed one more night, the butcher was getting in the roast beef that very next day after he died.

She had cried when they told her Phil was dead, big hacking sobs that filled the air with her pain and anguish, but she hadn't cried when she lost the baby. The bleeding started at his funeral and even though Charlie rushed her to the Emergency Room, she knew it was Phil taking his baby back, and that was okay. It was his baby as much as hers and she had Bella, after all. She couldn't be greedy and have them both and leave him over there never knowing his own child.

She thought she was coping, it was a shock to realise how bad things really were.

She woke up one night miles away from Charlie's house, one of the other cops doing night shift picked her up in the cruiser.

She fought him, she told him she was walking home to Phoenix, Phil would need help with their baby.

He went and got Charlie and he didn't understand she had to go home to Phil and next thing she had a new home where they talked to her about Phil, and the 'miscarriage', it was hardly that. It was just Phil taking his baby back.

She still had trouble, especially around that date, the day of the 'accident'. Charlie made up the story, he didn't want Bella to ever know and become traumatised.

She heard Edward arrive, it was only fair he got ready for the wedding here at Charlie's house seeing that Alice and Rose had taken her Bella away to dress her at the Cullen house.

That had not been fair but nobody listened to her, she was merely the Mother of The Bride, nobody important. She didn't even get to do anything. Charlie got to give their little girl away but all she got to do was watch.

Edward alone seemed to understand she needed more, she needed to be involved some how. He suggested that he and his brothers dress at the Swan house, to leave the girls in peace, and this way he would not have any chance of seeing his bride before the wedding.

They didn't want bad luck, the world was a harsh enough place without attracting more bad luck your way.

They were in Bella's bedoom, changing into their suits but she was here, ready to help any way she could.

Edward was nervous, he was such a nice boy, always ready to do anything for her Bella. His Bella, soon.

Jasper and Emmett emerged laughing, looking so handsome. She wished again that she had had a son as she saw them both in their tuxedo's, looking so very clean and attractive.

"Renee, Edward was hoping you would help him with his hair. It has a mind of it's own," Jasper had said and she had hurried into Bella's room.

Edward was seated at her daughter's desk that had been crammed back inside, with his back to her, smiling from his reflection in the mirror. His snowy white shirt was hanging on a hanger up on the curtain rail at the window and he was wearing only black silk boxers.

She wondered if that was all right, seeing her son-in-law in just boxers but as she approached, and saw his back, all such worries disappeared.

The scars.

She looked closely and it was if the world spun off it's axis.

She knew those scars, knew that roadmap of pain, there was just the one newer mark, worse even than the rest.

Of course, the bullet hole.

Edward caught her gaze as she stared into the mirror.

"Mike?" she said, hesitantly. "Mike" , surer now.

Edward stilled and turned the chair towards her.

"No, you are not..."

"I am. I met you before. You had dinner with Phil and I. The night that man killed my Phil. He shot me too, you know, but he didn't kill me. Sometimes I wish he had been a better shot. He shot you too, didn't he?"

Edward nodded.

"Bella, my God, Bella," he choked out in a cry.

"You must have hidden her in the attic, I didn't think to do that. Chris found her and she was right as rain, asleep with her pacifier in her mouth, in the storage box in front of the window."

"I put her there, I dragged her out of her crib and took her up into the attic. I knew I would never get her past him downstairs."

"You saved Bella, imagine that. You saved her and now you are marrying her. It's like kismet, don't you think?"

"It's something, that's for sure," answered Edward, dazed. He had met Bella when she was an infant and saved her life. She had grown up far away and met him when he was twenty one and dying himself, and she had returned the favor and saved him.

"Phil never owned a gun in his life, you know. He actually thought he could reason with the man."

"My father never knew the meaning of the word reason," Edward said. "God, Renee, I ruined your life when you opened that door and invited me into your home."

"Edward, you saved my Bella. Think about that. How drab would this world be without Bella?"

"But I cost you Phil."

"Your father killed Phil. You saved a life and he took one."

She put her arms around the man who once was the boy she briefly hoped could be her son.

"Oh, just think, if things had gone differently, Phil and I hoped to foster you and raise as Bella's older brother. That would have set a cat amongst the pigeons. Now I understand. The balance had to be kept, you had to not be her brother. Now I understand everything."

Renee smiled.

"Phil had to go so the universe could be set to rights when you two grew up and met again and fell in love. Phil didn't die for nothing, he died for love."

"You may as well say he died to save me," Edward replied.

"You were worth saving, Edward. I truly believe that."

Edward looked into her eyes and she kissed his cheek and held him tightly.

"Now the time is right, now you can be my son. The right way."

xxx


	11. Chapter 11

**Havagoodweegend, c ya Monday! Guess what any fellow Aussies, RPatz is coming to Sydney May 6th on his Water For Elephants Tour so lock up your daughters (or mothers) whatever.**

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 11

Reunited

Edward stood at the front of the makeshift aisle and smiled at Renee, he truly was gaining another mother today. He felt the connection with her, less so than with Bella of course, it was different. It was maternal, mother to son, she was the mother he had wanted. He adored Esme but Renee had been the first woman to ever see him as that needy unloved little boy he had had been and had accepted him and wanted to help him.

Knowing she had intended keeping him and not giving him back to his father was overwhelming, it was if he had value even back then. He had never seen himself that way before. She had met him once and decided she wanted him to be part of her family.

He must have been a good and worthwhile child for her to want to do that.

"Hey, no nerves?" Emmett whispered.

Edward laughed.

"What would I be nervous about, I am about to marry Bella and thus regain the other half of my soul and my new mother is about to let me fill part of her soul and help her heal. This day is epic, Emmett, it's like every day before this one was waiting, leading us to this point. It's the crossroads where we take a new path and live the life that was meant for us. I truly believe Bella was made for me. She has always been mine, Emmett, now I know that is true. She has been mine since she was a little baby in a crib with a pink pacifier."

Emmett frowned, then smiled.

Whatever.

Edward and Bella? Always meant to be. He was a simple soul, that simple fact was undeniable, there was nothing more to say.

Jasper was vibrating with emotion, he could feel the pull in the air. Bella was close and Edward was pulling her towards him.

Like two magnets, resistance was futile.

So what she was a high school student, technically so was Edward. This had to happen now, it was as if the rest of the world had hit a 'pause' button and couldn't get back to business as usual until they were joined in holy matrimony.

God knows no man would ever put asunder these two, not possible.

He felt impatient, his body could not relax until they touched one another. The anticipation in the air was palpable. The entire audience was restless, waiting, needing.

The music changed, and Jasper smiled in relief.

Almost, nearly there, come on.

Alice was first, tiny and perfect and all his.

She was dressed in blue, knowing it was Edward's favorite color and she had insisted the bride be dressed in white, so blue it was for the bridesmaids.

Alice had chosen a pale, almost baby blue, Rose behind her was wearing a darker almost royal blue, but they both knew they looked amazing.

Alice scattered rose petals in front of herself as she walked, Rose had refused to be party to that, insisting it was a 'flower girl' activity therefore beneath her.

Alice didn't care, she already knew this wedding was going to be perfect.

She gazed at Jasper and her heart almost stopped.

No, this was not their day, she had to look away or she would bounce to the front and marry her man instead of watching Bella marry her brother.

Rose walked elegantly and accepted the looks of admiration from every man in the marquee bar one.

Drat that Edward, he saw her for what she was, or had been, not for the exquisite covering she displayed to the world. Her mother had told her to take every pleasure offered to her before she settled down and got married and it had never bothered her, her extensive experience with males was like some hobby. She liked sex in all forms, by a single partner or many, it was all the same to her. She cared nothing for their names or if they even liked her. Her life was all about pleasure.

Then she met Emmett and luckily he had been around taking his pleasure wherever he fancied, so they had no problems about each others pasts.

It was Edward that unsettled her and made her feel had she saved herself, she would have been special.

She had always wanted to be special, but no man, even Emmett, had ever looked at her like Edward looked at Bella.

It confused her at first, she was used to every male losing their calm when they first met her, their eyes would open wider, their tongues would all but hang out of their mouths, their pants would be tighter as that telltale bulge signalled she had them wanting her, desiring her, imagining her naked.

Edward looked at her with a little sadness, a little pity for God's sake and she hated it. She didn't need his pity. She wasn't the one who had wanted out of this life and needed another human to give her a reason to live.

She had been happy, of course she had. She was envied, lusted after, gorgeous, she was everything.

Bella Swan was a pale little shadow compared to Rosalie Hale.

She was pretty enough, slim, friendly, but mainly she was adored. That was the part Rose envied.

Loved, cherished, adored.

Rose looked away, the sight of Edward looking for his bride, not even seeing the statuesque beauty in front of him that every other male was watching was more than she could bear. She didn't exist in his world, and she had never met another male who failed to fall under her spell.

She followed Alice to the side of the aisle and looked at the bouquet in her hand.

She was the showy lily but Bella was the the pretty wildflowers that surrounded the elegant white flower. Bella was the one who made you smile, who made you hope she would find happiness, the one they were all here for today. They all wanted to see the copperhaired man take the little beauty into his arms and then they would all be happy and know the world was as it should be.

Edward felt the connection as always and his body was aware in every cell as Charlie brought his other half towards him. He knew it was supposedly wrong to need another person as much as he needed her, but they were different. They were one another's half souls, they had to unite to be a full soul again and his life had lacked light and joy and happiness until she had drifted back into his orbit again.

He had been waiting for her for so very long, she had no idea how long he had waited for her.

Since he was a five year old boy who suddenly had the strength to save the baby who was his other half.

He couldn't even explain how he, a scrawny underfed abused boy, had the strength to carry that perfect little baby up that ladder and not drop her to her death. He had only known he had to save her, and to do that he had to walk away from her, and then his world had turned dark until he found her again.

She had recognized him, she admitted as much. She had never felt the connection with anyone else, she had never spoken to another male like she spoke to him. She knew they were meant to be and she had acted differently than she had ever before, instinctively knowing what she had to do, say something outrageous to snap him back and get his attention and keep him alive until she could cast her spell on him completely.

He had forgotten what he planned to do that night, by the time she invited him to her bedroom.

Imagine that, he had spent years thinking of his plan and the moment it was sorted and he was ready, she came along and he forgot.

How many people walk out of their house on their way to commit suicide and forget what they were doing?

She had entered his brain and pushed all other thoughts aside, she needed all that room for herself so she had given the darkness it's warning, get out, I am taking over here.

Gradually she had used her words to beat down that former controller of his mind and had let him think and experience life in it's best form, for himself.

And now she was walking towards him, and their eyes were for each other alone, it was as if there was nobody here but them.

She had been right, the entire town or no witness at all, it was the same.

They couldn't see the guests anyway, all they could see was one another.

He forced his feet to be still and not run to her, he saw she was struggling not to run to him.

'Be patient, my Love, I am here, we will be together in seconds, you have always been mine anyway.'

She smiled, she had received and understood his message. Her feet slowed a fraction and she let herself enjoy the walk.

Charlie nodded and wiped away a tear as he kissed his daughter and handed her to Edward, then faded away.

Edward held her gaze and accepted her hand, as she had accepted his, and he pulled her gently so their bodies touched lightly.

Nothing mattered any more.

They spoke, they repeated words, but the joining was happening in their eyes, neither could glance away for even a second.

Edward felt the ring being pushed into his hand and he slid it onto Bella's finger.

Bella smiled and suddenly she had a ring in her hand too, and it was sliding onto his finger.

Edward pulled her closer and took her lips into his and he failed to notice the titter going around the room.

"Well, I would normally now say 'you may now kiss the bride' but it seems he is already doing that, dearly beloved."

Silence hung in the air as they kissed, and the world spun off it's axis and realigned, and their bodies melded into one anothers and women watching shifted in their seats and looked away, it was almost too painful to watch it was so beautiful. Men coughed, and put a finger into their collars to loosen their ties a little, and felt like voyeurs.

Time stopped.

Not a sound was heard as the two souls became one again.

They were witnessing a miracle.

Rosalie blinked, she could have sworn she saw a pair of angel wings surround the couple as they connected, but that would not ever be heard from her lips, she was not the nutter of the family.

Alice finally stepped forward and touched her brother and his bride on their shoulders and broke the spell.

Both Edward and Bella were jolted back to the present and looked shocked to find where they were, what was happening.

"Ooops," Bella said as she noticed they had an audience. The room echoed as everyone drew in a collective breath, suddenly realizing they had all been holding their last one.

Edward laughed, a genuine, happy laugh and he refused to let her go, almost crushing her in his embrace.

"My Bella, back where she should be," he said.

Bella blushed and the room erupted in applause, it seemed like the thing to do, applaud the fact they had been privileged to witness what had happened.

"Okay, let's get this show moving, where's the food?" Emmett asked, and people laughed in relief.

The bride and groom walked as one back down the aisle and their eyes were no longer glazed and unseeing, they greeted their guests as they passed, and many shook their heads and wondered what had occurred.

It had been so strange, so unusual, weddings were usually far more simple than what they had seen.

xxx

Bella felt her husband's arms surround her as they danced their first dance together and they could feel the happiness and good will in the room. It was done, now they had the rest of eternity. Edward gently grazed his chin over the top of her head. She would always be safe here in his arms, he would make sure of that. His mind was replaying the first time he had kissed her, right here, on the top of her head, when it was covered in baby fuzz rather than the silky locks that had replaced it.

He wanted to tell her, but not here, not today.

The music ended and changed, Jasper and Alice were on stage and this time the strains of 'Ruby' rang out with his brother's voice as he accompanied Alice's dobro playing with his guitar.

Charlie and Renee appeared at their sides, locked in one another's arms, swaying to the beat.

Renee was happy, she smiled at her daughter and new son and then gazed into Charlie's eyes and felt herself finally come inside out of the cold, she had come home.

They had been a couple first, and somehow now it was what she wanted again as well. It was as if Phil had finally freed her and let her move on.

She would be sleeping in Charlie's bed tonight and not just in his arms as usual, there would be nakedness happening.

Something about this wedding had changed the world, and now she could see her own future clearly. It would be perfect, another kind of perfect but not lesser than what she had before.

She felt no sense of obligation to reward Charlie for his years of care and patience, she would have written him a check if that's all it was.

She was home again, it was that simple.

And she wanted to be there.

Charlie sensed the change in her, and smiled. It was possible for a woman to love two men, he had always known that. Renee had fought it and thought loving him would somehow diminish the love she had shared with Phil, but she had been wrong.

It was not a competition about who she loved more, it was about both men wanting her to be happy, and be loved. Charlie had done all he could in his turn, Phil had taken over and loved her fully but so briefly on earth, though he loved her still and watched over her and hers.

He had embraced the coupling of Edward and Bella, he had always known why his time was cut short and much as he missed Renee, he knew it was for a purpose and that purpose had been fulfilled today with his blessing.

He smiled at the three cherubs beside him. Only one was his, the other two were waiting. Their time would come.

Charlie felt torn between staying to watch his daughter or rushing home with his wife to reclaim her. Bella was so absorbed in Edward he doubted the absence of her parents would even be noticed. Esme and Carlisle danced up beside them and Esme leaned into Renee's ear.

"We have a guestroom on the second floor, it's very private up there if you need a place to, cough*reunite*cough, you are very welcome to use it. It has an attached shower room."

She smiled and Carlisle winked at Renee as they danced across the other side of the floor.

"Charlie, I think I feel the need to go lay down, please take me upstairs."

Charlie sighed, damn it all, and just when things were going so well.

He led her to the staircase and stopped in shock as he felt his wife's hand caress the front of his pants.

"Hurry up, Charlie, I really really need to lie down, in a bed," she urged.

Charlie scooped her into his arms and ran up the staircase.

xxx

"Where are my parents?" Bella said impatiently several hours later. It was time for Edward to take her to the mystery destination where they would spend the next few weeks, until they felt the need to return to the real world.

She hoped there would be some form of grocery store nearby because it may be a rather long time before that urge hit. Maybe they would miss Senior Year.

"Your parents are upstairs, I think Renee needed to refresh herself," Esme said, gesturing to Carlisle to go get them.

Carlisle cringed.

"Do I have to?" he asked and Esme kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Good boys who do what they are told always get rewarded, Carlisle."

He took the staircase two steps at a time and knocked on the guestroom door.

A rather crumbled Charlie opened it, and Carlisle helped him get his tie back on as Renee smoothed down his jacket.

"I told him to hang it up, but he didn't listen," she said to Carlisle.

"You did?" said Charlie, funny, he hadn't heard that. He'd heard the bit she had said as he carried her about stripping her naked but not the bit about hanging up his jacket.

"The kids are leaving for their honeymoon, we thought you should be there to stay goodbye but please feel free to stay here tonight if you want to. You have your room already."

"Oh thanks, but Renee was saying she would like to go home to an empty house and really..."

He paused and blushed when he realized what he had just said.

"Scream, Charlie, I said I wanted to feel free to scream. Carlisle is a doctor and a man, he understands these things. Here, I found your boxers, you should take those pants off and put your boxers on first, have you forgotten how to dress because you certainly haven't forgotten how to fu.."

Charlie put his hand across his wife's mouth.

"We will be right down, thank you Carlisle."

xxx

Bella was swept from one set of arms to another, and finally her parents gave her their blessings and kissed her goodbye.

"Mom, your hair, what on earth.." she asked as Renee patted down the bedhair and smiled.

"You think my hair is messy? You should probably braid yours on this trip because I have a feeling you will never get the knots out if you leave it free while Edward ….. enjoys the rewards of marriage."

Charlie breathed out a sigh of relief, at least she had used a more polite was of saying 'fucks your brains out' which is what she had been thinking.

"Bye, Bella, Edward, enjoy yourselves, see you when you get back, we have to get home ourselves.."

"Not as young as you used to be, Charlie?" Carlisle asked innocently. "Already wishing you were home in bed? Us oldies have no staying power."

"I hope that's not true," Renee and Esme chorused together.

Bella frowned and bit her lip. What were they, a four piece comedy troupe?

"Good bye and thanks, best wedding ever," Bella said.

"To be followed by the best honeymoon ever," Edward added, and pulled her into the car.

They drove swiftly down the road and each pretended not to hear the howl of laughter from their respective fathers.


	12. Chapter 12

**Sorry, I couldn't update, fanfic kept giving me an error message, the writers at Facebook told me how to overcome the message. Anyway, I have finished writing all the remaining chapters of this story so will update every 15 reviews if anyone's still reading. Cheers,Lynzi**

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 12

Honeymoon

Bella was excited as they drove through the night.

"Give me a clue at least."

"Well, Alice bought and packed all your honeymoon clothes, didn't she let anything slip at all?" Edward asked.

"I am pretty sure I got measured up for a bikini, she threw my one piece in the trash in disgust and warned me never to buy another until I am old. She cut it into three pieces first, so I couldn't even go get it back later. That's all I know."

"Bikini's? Good but unnecessary," Edward replied.

"Unnecessary because we won't be swimming?" Bella asked.

"No, we will be swimming but naked swimming is always best," Edward replied.

"So, we are going to a nude beach resort?" Bella guessed, cringing a little. Not only did she have no desire for old naked men to perv on her, she didn't want to see their bodies either.

"How come the people who want to go naked in public never seem to be the young slim attractive ones?" she asked.

"There will only be young slim attractive people where we are," Edward assured her.

"One of those 18 to 30 adult resorts?" she asked. She had seen them advertised, in an effort to provide the type of music and food that appealed to the younger tourists, many resorts now catered especially to a single age group. No kids,no family groups, no retiree's in the 18 to 30 groups.

"Nope, more exclusive," Edward answered, pulling in at SeaTac. He grabbed their bags and headed Bella into the check in counter and glanced up at the departure boards. Their flight was not showing yet.

"Wait here, I will check us in and get our tickets," he said and Bella sat down and gazed around at the passengers arriving and leaving from all over. No clues there, they could be flying anywhere and even connecting with another flight some other place next.

Edward came back after checking their luggage in and led her to the V.I.P lounge.

"Coffee? A drink? Are you nervous?" he asked.

"Not about flying, just about where we are ending up. I hope nowhere too crowded, I kind of want to give all my attention to you and not waste energy chatting with fellow honeymooners we will never see again."

"Good, no other honeymooners are staying where we are staying."

"So, there will be some other guests though?" she asked. Surely he had not booked an entire resort for the two of them.

"Nope, just us and the cleaning crew who will clean and restock the food supplies every two weeks. We will be close enough to go visit the mainland and go to clubs and restaurants if you insist but otherwise we will be all alone. And naked."

"You didn't book an entire resort?" she asked.

"Nope. This place is very exclusive. There will be just us. Only Cullen's ever come there."

"The Cullen's own a resort?" she asked, shocked.

"The Cullen's own an island," Edward replied. "Carlisle inherited it from his family and gave it to Esme on their honeymoon. It's called Esme's Island."

"Whoa, Esme has her own island. I think I am going to like being a Cullen. Do I get my own island, too?" she asked.

Edward laughed.

"Maybe, if Alice keeps giving us tips on the stock market, it could happen."

"Bella's Island. I shall look forward to it. Can we print our own money? I always thought my face would suit being on a fifty dollar bill."

"Bella, it's an island, not a principality."

"Rats. I was going to insist everyone there was called a Bellafarian. Sounds kind of cool, right?"

"That's our flight, come on, Mrs Cullen. We have a borrowed island to visit."

Once the plane landed, Edward led Bella and their luggage towards the taxi rank and stowed their bags into the trunk and they got inside and drove through the night until they came to a marina.

"That's our boat," Edward said, pointing out a sleek and fast craft bobbing on the water. He stowed the bags and paid off the cab and carried Bella on board.

"It's sort of a threshold," he explained. "I have to carry you over every threshold."

Bella laughed and relaxed in his arms and hoped she wouldn't feel seasick. She had never enjoyed water sports and avoided trips in Charlie's fishing boat, though it was somewhat smaller and less elegant than this craft.

Watching Edward's face as he sped through the night , the boat bouncing over waves, made he see how excited he was, too. His face was lit in anticipation, and she rubbed her thighs together, and tried to keep calm. Plenty of time to be aroused when they got there.

The sight of the island ahead, with the house lit up from the inside, excited her more and when they pulled into the jetty, Edward tied the boat up and put their bags onto the wooden platform.

"Wait, I get to carry you," he insisted. He lifted Bella out of the boat and all but ran towards the house in front of them, kicking the door open impatiently.

They almost made it to the bedroom, but what could he do? There was a wall, and it was a strong wall, strong enough to support his bride as he held up against it and her legs circled his waist and he pulled on a condom and pushed inside her. He carefully hiked one of her legs up over his shoulder, then the other. The precariousness of the stance made him harder than ever, and he pounded inside her with unbridled passion.

In all the visits to this island over the years, he had never imagined he would come here with a bride of his own, and the house now looked entirely different. Suddenly it had changed into their lovenest.

"One room down, thirteen to go," he said as he withdrew from her satisfied body, and kissed her.

"Only thirteen, then we are only staying two weeks?" Bella asked.

"No, Bella, thirteen rooms inside then a whole island to explore and find places to make love in, like under the waterfall. That will be amazing."

He let her put her legs down and stood her against the wall and kissed her deeply.

"You should get the luggage," she said.

"Why, this is a clothes free zone. There is literally nobody but us here, Bella."

"I believe Alice bought some lingerie you will want to rip to shreds," she replied and Edward ran to fetch the luggage.

xxx

The thirteen other rooms were done over the next two days and nights so outside was all that remained to be desecrated.

Bella draped a sarong around her hips, she hadn't actually been outside much and wanted to see how big the island was. And if anyone could see them. Maybe they had close other island neighbors.

Edward was asleep, she smirked as she left him in bed in the house and walked down to the beach. Who had the staying power then?

Okay, he had, all last night, that's for sure but she was the one awake and up now, in the morning.

It was beautiful here, suddenly she didn't want to go back home ever. Just a feeling but it insisted if they stayed things would be just fine, amazing, perfect.

If they returned, not so much.

She shook the thought away. She was turning into Alice.

Stripping off her sarong she slid into the warmish water and walked out until it covered her waist. She shut her eyes and let herself feel the warmth of the sun's rays and the gentle caress of the water and she felt so relaxed she failed to hear her husband walk quietly in behind her.

All she felt were the possessive hands covering her naked breasts and the erection tapping at her backside. She leaned a little forward and felt him slip inside her.

Neither said a word as he pounded inside her, while she kept her eyes closed and just went with the sensations, not thinking, not hoping how this would end, it was what it was.

One hand slid lower and found her clit and Bella breathed out silently, and let his fingers excite her as images of them here together filled her brain.

It was kind of raw and animalistic almost, no words of love and adoration, just naked raw sex between two people in a lagoon.

She screamed into the silence when he threw her over the edge and he still made no sound as she felt him tremble and fill her.

Bella opened her eyes in surprise, no condom?

They had never, ever made love without a layer of latex between them, and the feeling of his semen filling her inside made her wish those intrusive rubbers were a thing of the past.

She liked knowing some of him would remain in her even after he withdrew.

He hugged her tightly from the back and kissed her throat and the back of her neck, and peppered kisses down her spine, not stopping when he reached her backside.

Bella felt his hands wash her ladies parts and opened her legs wider to his ministrations.

He emerged himself underwater and kissed her between her folds, then she felt him pull her into shallower water and set her forward so she was balanced on her hands and knees and mounted her from above.

Bella couldn't help but love the freedom here, this was not how they had ever been back in Forks. It was different here, no chance of discovery, nobody watching, walking by, suddenly she was glad they would soon have their own house and the sexual freedom it would bring.

Very glad.

Edward thrust inside her harder and all thoughts left her head and she groaned out loud and bucked against his lunging, which only encouraged him to ram her harder. He pulled her to her knees only and roughly grabbed at her breasts as her back hit his chest, pulling and squashing them far harder than he ever had before, it was like the rules no longer applied out here with the other species.

Bella screamed as the first orgasm hit her like a tsunami but he didn't falter, he kept her coming over and over until the very real threat of blacking out made her drop her hands back down to the sand. The feral sound that came from his lips as he madly pulsed inside her, grabbing her hips so hard his fingers would surely leave her bruised, pushing himself in so deep she felt every spurt of semen hit her walls and fill her until he finally stilled and withdrew.

He kissed every inch of her back, neck, all the areas of her face he could reach from behind, then he closed her eyelids gently and she heard him walk away.

She crawled into the shallows, at the very edge and collapsed in the sun, and slept.

Hours later, when she awoke, she laughed. At some point, Edward the beast, the wild animal, the rough and ready lover had returned and put up a beach umbrella to shade her as she slept.

She laughed and shook her head. Even at his most raw, he couldn't help himself, he always had to care for her.

She feared he would regret his actions the next day when she awoke in their bed before he did, and saw the purple splodges on her arms, her ass cheeks, even her hips were marked where he had grabbed her to move her up and down in the middle of the frenzy of their love making. And the whole no condom thing, he had used condoms as usual last night in bed, with no reference or apology for not doing so during their water play.

He hadn't said a word when she had closed the umbrella and brought it inside with her, he simply served her dinner after she showered and he kissed her cheek innocently as he lay her plate on the table.

"I hope you had a nice day all alone out there," he asked, and she had simply nodded and smiled.

xxx

Edward's dream were chaotic, in it his foolish actions in the lagoon led to a pregnancy and that pregnancy ended with the birth of a snarling, screaming monster with rows of sharp teeth like a shark possesses, and claws instead of hands and it tore it's way out of it's mother's belly, killing her. It didn't stop at that though, it ripped and tore and bit everyone in the delivery room, killing Carlisle, attacking Esme as she stood with her arms extended wanting to just hold and love the monster. He saw his mother die in a pool of blood, crying over the baby not herself. His brothers tried to catch it and Alice had smiled as the abhorrent creature ripped her throat out, and started on Rose, who was sitting by the window looking at her own reflection and painting her nails.

Once the girls were dead, it killed Jasper then Emmett, who was shocked he couldn't win against this tiny baby sized creature of death. Edward had raised his hand to it, and suddenly Ted, the father who had beaten and shot him, was there, handing out cigars.

"He's a chip off the old block. He should be named Edward, for me. he got everything from me, he should have been my son, not that snivelling little fucker I got. But he was worth having seeing he got to father a proper Masen Monster."

The creature lay in Ted's arms and Edward tried to kill it, and his father took out a gun and shot him.

He sat up, screaming, his face drenched in sweat, his heart racing.

Bella slept on, murmuring a little, rolling away and snoring gently again as she settled.

Edward didn't sleep again until the morning that she woke and cursed quietly at the blood on her thighs and sheets, and went to shower while he jubilantly stripped the bed. he had not stopped making love to her since the dream but it could hardly be termed making love, it was hard fucking, in the hope he could dislodge the monster if it indeed was growing inside her.

xxx

Weeks slipped by and Edward had become used to naked Bella, she never bothered with clothing until her period turned up then she wore a bikini and and sarong, and lay in the sun rubbing her abdomen as he fed her painkillers and made her tea.

He was glad he wasn't a female. Maybe she should have a hysterectomy soon seeing she was in agreement that they would never have children. Why go through all this pain and discomfort if you were never going to use the equipment anyway?

He had to admit, he would relax properly if she did have the operation. He supposed she would face the same opposition as he had when he tried to get the vasectomy. He still wanted it done and soon. If she wanted an operation as well, he would badger Carlisle into getting it done for them. There must be some medical condition he could certify Bella suffered from. Sex without condoms had been far better than he had ever imagined, and he couldn't help wanting to do that again, more often, always. There had to be a way.

The warm water of the enclosed lagoon soothed her cramps and he held her up as she floated in the deepest part and he kissed her stomach.

She was not opposed to still having sex during this ordeal she had assured him but he knew she was in a lot of pain at the moment and he cared more about her comfort than their sex life.

A few days off would let them both recharge and get hungry again. And they could sleep through the nights this week, that would be a change.

Edward liked it here, nobody to listen to, nobody demanding anything of them, he pulled Bella to the shore and carried her to the softest sand, under the shade of a tree and lay her on a beachtowel and spooned his body around hers, stroking her belly and soothing away the pain. They slept as the sun peaked and started to descend again.

Edward cooked breakfast most days, he quite liked cooking and she liked eating so that worked. She was always willing to eat whatever he prepared, she really did eat anything. That made him think of what she had in her mouth when he awoke with a start that morning.

His erection rose and tented the apron he had put on to keep him safe was splashing fat as he fried their morning eggs.

Suddenly her hands were on him, seeking out his 'friend', distracting him from his chore so he turned the hot plate off and put the frypan to the side and turned to face his tormentor.

"They are finally done, now I need to be," Bella said, pulling him to the couch and bending her naked body over the arm.

"Don't you want gentle first? We can build up back to rough," he suggested. She had been untouched for almost seven days, surely she would want him to take it slow today?  
"Edward, just fuck me hard and remind us why we are here."

He did.

xxx

Bella decided she had to explore the house properly, some rooms they had merely entered in the dead of night to fuck on the floor and then moved on to the next room, so this blue bedroom was unseen until now.

She liked it, Esme had decorated it with white and a variety of blues, from baby blue to mid blue, the walls gradually became lighter as they reached the ceiling. From the floor to waist height they were the deep blue of the lagoon. The higher part of the walls and the ceiling itself was the blue of a summer sky and she had sponge painted soft white clouds across the entire ceiling.

The bed was white, a four poster, hung with gauzy see through drapes that fluttered in the breeze form the open window.

Along the top rail where the drapes were hung from were a series of snowy white ornamental birds, but more like doves than the expected seagulls.

She walked to the French doors that opened onto the golden sand outside and decided she liked this bedroom more than the main bedroom they had been using.

The cleaners would be here again tomorrow, maybe they should move into here and not return to that other plainer but larger room.

This room felt more like Bella, she just hoped Edward would agree.

After dinner she took his hand and led him into the blue room.

He didn't object as she stripped him of her sarong that he had worn to cook in, and she flipped the top sheet back and pulled him on top of her.

He was different here, like he had a new persona for each room.

This one was dirty talking Edward and his words pushed her over the edge far more quickly than Silent Edward had, but he was instantly recovered and entered her over and over again.

She felt the resentment as he pulled on each new condom, and she hoped he knew she wished just as much as he did that these things didn't have to come between them.

Morning found them both puzzled as they picked white feathers from one another's hair.

"It appears we may have rocked the world of those birds above us," he laughed, blowing a small white feather to the floor.

xxx

"How long have we been here?" Bella asked one day as they swam lazily, and Edward finally admitted they had indulged in enough sex for one morning. Going home did not appeal. The idea of having to dress again and restrict their sex life to more conventional times and places was enough to make him want to stay.

"Ten weeks, give or take," he answered.

"We should go back, term is almost due to begin and we want to get this year over and done with and graduate and be real adults."

"I want to stay forever," Edward said, pulling her closer and kissing her face. "Just you and me forever, that's the way it should always be."

"I could live here, I admit," Bella replied.

"We need our own island, this one gets invaded by the family now and then. Let's go home and start investing again and Alice can help us buy Bella's Island," Edward replied.

"Come on then, come help me pack my vast wardrobe of clothing," she laughed.

"One more week?" he begged, changing his mind, not wanting reality back quite yet.

"No, let's go now, my period's due so it will be a week of rest anyhow. Come on, let's go pack my bikini and sarong, and don't you dare tell Alice we didn't actually wear any of the clothes she bought us. We shall wear something home, something she would really want to see us in."

Bella looked through the bag and found a pair of cut off designer jeans and a white Tshirt with diamantes on the front.

"Do you think Cavalli will be suitable enough to travel in?" she asked, looking at the brands.

"Fine, but keep them ready to put on after we walk out the front door. We have to say goodbye to this place the same way as we said hello."

Edward carried their bags to the boat and stowed them, and came back to find his wife standing against the wall right where their first sexual encounter as a married couple had taken place.

"Good girl," he said as Bella's body circled his and he pushed inside her, condom already in place.

This time he was lazy and in no hurry, wanting to make this last as long as possible, and Bella was lost in a daze of warmth and that buzz his lovemaking caused between them, enjoying the ride until he decided she had to come now and he suddenly thrust hrader and pushed her over as he pulsed inside her. She hid how she felt from him as he came inside that damn condom. So much more fun without them.

There were slight traces of blood as he withdrew.

Just in time. She was right, then, no point staying another week, though a week of just cuddling would have done for him. He never wanted to let her go, and the connection was always there, even when they simply lay together. He loved his nights now, the stars she had given him had long conquered the darkness of night.

Bella watched the relief in his eyes as he saw the blood, she had considered asking Carlisle to put her on one of the newer Pills that only had two bleeding breaks per year but she knew Edward needed to see the monthly evidence there was no 'devil spawn' growing inside her. He was always more anxious than she was, he seemed to be the one who suffered from PMT.

She grabbed her handbag and headed for the shower, and swallowed a couple of stronger painkillers so the flight home would not be a complete misery.

xxx

Esme and Carlisle were waiting when they pulled up and Bella was welcomed again into the Cullen family. She begged off joining them for coffee and food until she went upstairs and used the shower off Edward's bedroom, and changed her clothes again into something warmer. They were back in Forks, where naked was not really an option out of the bed most days.

Her body was tanned and healthy looking and she dressed and went down to eat with her new parents.

"There's been a lot of progress on your house while you were away. A couple more weeks and it will be finished," Carlisle told them.

"The security system seems a little over the top, Edward. Electrified fences, triple locked gate, surveillance cameras. Are we at threat of another war?"

"He knows where my land is, I presume. I am never taking chances. Nobody can enter that yard without the right equipment, even the gate between our property line and yours has the same precautions, you will have to buzz and ask us to open the gate for you. Sorry, but that's just the way it has to be until I know for sure he is dead."

xxx

When they arrived back at their as yet incomplete upstairs house, Bella listened and watched carefully as Edward explained the security measures that would soon be activated. He was not giving any of the others the necessary remote controls to use to enter the yard, they would have to be buzzed in by Bella, or himself, and he cautioned her to always look at the monitor to see it was indeed friend not foe asking for entrance.

He then led her down the path to the basically completed ground floor of their house and he covered her eyes.

Edward was excited, whatever he had in store she knew she had better react in a manner sufficient to show him she loved it, whatever it may be. Jasper and Emmett arrived with Rose and Alice and Edward greeted them all happily. The girls were all huggy and excited to hear about the honeymoon, the guys were all high fives and winks and nudges.

"I have a feeling I may need an audience full of members who will appreciate this gift properly," Edward announced with a grin. Bella was completely ignorant about cars, she had asked him if a BMW convertible was the new VW once.

Edward let her eyes free as he opened the garage and Rose rushed in and ran her hand over Bella's new car.

"Wow, I like it," she said, smiling at Bella. "This is a really good car, Bella. Safe but stylish, it suits you."

Bella walked up to her new vehicle and peered inside.

"Hop in, see how it feels," Edward suggested.

She climbed into the driver's seat and looked around.

"Four on the floor?" she said with a frown. "I'm not sure..."

"It will be fine, you will get the hang of it in no time. Very smooth ride, but like Rosalie said, it's safe and pretty," Alice said with a smile.

"Look at the size of the trunk," Rose enthused. "You could get a whole heap of shopping into that trunk, it's enormous."

"Oh yes, you can take us to the Mall next week, we can fit all we three buy into that trunk," Alice confirmed.

"Okay, everybody step back, we are taking a test drive," Edward announced, getting into the front passenger seat.

Bella started the car and backed out of the garage and stalled it when she attempted to change gear to turn around towards the gate.

"Edward, even the Beast had been converted into an automatic, I don't know if I can get the hang of gears," she said.

"You will do fine, there's nothing to it, in a week you will wonder why you didn't want gears from the start. I always prefer cars with gears. Automatics are for lazy drivers."

xxx

Alice flopped into the front passenger seat and Rose got into the back and sat the extra parcels of shoe boxes into the empty seat beside her.

"So much for that trunk being enormous," Rose said with a sigh. Emmett was going to go berserk when he saw how many new pairs of boots she had bought. She had hurriedly bought him a few things to hopefully distract him from the many bags of clothes and shoes she had bought for herself.

Bella started the car and it screamed in protest.

"Fucking gears, I am never going to get the hang of it. Do you want to drive, Alice?" she asked.

"I would but you know Edward wants you to practise and get it down pat, now calm down and start again."

Bella sighed and rattled the gear stick.

"Here goes nothing," she said and smiled when she got it right next try. Maybe Edward was right, maybe she was getting the hang of it.

xxx

"Believe me, brother, the Lord can guide you to greener pastures, don't you regret the wrongs you committed? Don't you wish there was a way to make up for those dark days when you cried out in pain and nobody heard your cry for help?" James said, pushing his meal tray away.

"James, shut the fuck up, you are annoying the crap out of us," said the burly man sitting on his left.

"Wait, he does have a small point there. I do wish there was something I could do for those poor souls..." Ted admitted.

So many months had gone by, the other prisoners had seen his attitude towards James change slowly but surely. At first he had merely said the man was entitled to believe whatever crap he wanted, but nowadays he pointed out some of what James said made sense.

He had finally begun joining James in his nightly prayers and the guards always fought to be the one who got to watch this miracle that was unfolding in front of their eyes.

At first they had dismissed it as a ploy, they had waited for Ted to turn on the boy and break his teeth to show he he was just playing games, but no, it was a nightly ritual. Ted and James declared their love for the Lord above and the newness of it all was passing. It seemed Ted was turning over a new leaf.

Well, anything that made him easier to handle, and made their jobs easier.

James had several visitors from an outside Church group and he had requested Ted be allowed to join him today when the ladies visited.

The warden scratched his head but signed his agreement.

Why Ted would want to spend time with some holier than thou pontificating old dears was beyond his limited imagination.

The guards had been warned to stick close by in case he tried anything, pussy of any age would appeal to a man behind bars as long as Ted had been.

xxx

"Warden, I beg you, think about it. James and I would be happy to head the group ourselves. All we need is a room where the believers can sit and listen to the word of God. You can lock us in, we don't have an agenda here. We just feel it is our duty to bring hope and comfort to the black sheep and show them the way home."

The warden gave up, he had heard this same plea for months. What harm could two men preaching do really? He signed the approval for a dozen new Bibles and looked at Ted.

"Okay, but the first time we get a whiff of anything shifty, you get a week in the box. Agreed?"

"Oh thank you sir, may the Lord bless you and yours," Ted said, his face a picture of sincerity.

xxx

**Review if reading so I know whether to keep updating please.**


	13. Chapter 13

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 13

Bang

"Augh!" Bella yelled, grinding the gears again. "Fucking motherfucker of a fucker!"

She tried to calm down and ignore the cars that were blaring their horns at her as she sat at the lights and watched them change from red to green to red again.

"I love you Edward but I HATE this fucking car!" she screamed into the silent empty interior.

She was glad, really, that he wasn't here to hear her ungrateful cries, but in truth, if she thought she could get away with it, she would take The Beast in preference to this heap of crap.

Everyone else could drive it, Alice had no problems, Rose had given her endless driving lessons in it, Emmett had even tried as well. They all knew how much she hated the car but wanted to please Edward. Charlie had tried but he couldn't understand why the gear stick behaved the way it did in her hands alone. He had given up, raised his hands in defeat in the end and suggested she get herself a season bus pass.

Jasper had endless patience so he had helped her the most, he refused to concede defeat even when Emmett had pulled out half his black curls and Rose had screamed at her and said she was clearly a moron.

"You said I would get the hang of it," Bella had yelled at Alice.

"That was me being your supportive friend, not me being Psychic Alice."

"What do you see?" Bella pushed.

Alice shuddered.

"You will survive."

They had formed a conspiracy of silence, taking her out driving when Edward was elsewhere. He had thrown himself back into music and was studying for some certificate or degree or whatever musicians earned, so Bella had some spare time available when he imagined her having fun or out for drinks with the others, when in reality one of them was trying to teach her the way to control this fucking car.

She started again, put it in gear, started the engine, yes, thank the Gods because her next move had been to get out, abandon the vehicle and walk home alone, even though it was dark and she was alone.

Charlie and Renee had insisted on having her over for dinner because Edward was out at some music related 'thing', whatever. She didn't really mind, she loved his playing and the new grand piano in the new house that had only been completed six months ago was her favorite piece of furniture. Well, apart from the bed.

She loved the bed.

She loved the man in the bed.

She loved what the man in the bed did to her.

He played her body like he played his piano, like she was a fine instrument that he could urge the sweetest sounds from.

Bella hit the remote control for the gates and waited as the search lights came on, illuminating the entire area around her car, there was no way a second car or even a person on foot could creep inside unseen while she drove through the gates.

Overkill, sure, but when did Edward ever do anything by halves?

She hit the garage door opener and sighed with relief, he had beaten her home.

At least she had a warm man in her warm bed.

xxx

Bella opened the bedroom door, and smiled at the sight before her. Edward was sleeping but clasping his pillow in his arms, muttering endearments to it in his sleep. She slipped out of her clothing and crept in beside her man and stole the pillow that was attempting to take her place. Not in this bed, not in this lifetime, nobody and nothing would ever take her place and she would make sure that was true.

She tossed the offensive rectangle of foam and fabric onto the floor and wriggled her body closer to him and felt as they touched from head to toe. She tangled her feet with his and put her arms around his warm sleeping torso. Whatever happened, this was the only place she ever wanted to be and the only arms she ever wanted to lie in. She instinctively knew there would never be anyone who loved her as much as he did, no parents, no friend, no lover, no child.

Not even a child.

Even if he did one day change his mind and give her a baby, that baby would never love her with the depth of passion and desperation and need and love and joy and giving and care he had for her. Babies grow up, leave home, make their own lives, Edward was giving her forever. An eternity with Edward, how could her life be any better.

"My baby," he murmured, pulling her in close and laying his cheek on her head. Bella smiled, it was not an endearment he had ever used, she was 'love' , most often, 'baby' sometimes but never 'my baby'.

"My baby, meant for me," he said and Bella frowned.

Edward's eyes fluttered open.

"Since when have you called me your baby?" she asked,grinning.

"You have been my baby since I was five years old and pulled you from your crib and hid you in Renee and Phil's attic. I think I knew even then that you were meant for me. I waited for you, I waited for you to come back to me and now you have. You were mine always, Bella. I saved you and you saved me. We were always meant to be."

Bella considered his words. She had been that baby? It made sense, of course they had been destined to find one another, just in a nick of time, but it didn't matter. A second, a minute, a whole year, what difference did it make if it was in time? In time was the only important part.

"I love you, Edward. I would never choose anyone ahead of you, not in this lifetime or another."

"I think we have probably had lifetimes together already and there will be more, my Bella. We will never be parted, I promise you that."

xxx

"Fuck me, Bella, you have to come see the new barista, he is hawt!" Alice panted, running beside her friend. They were almost due to graduate High School at last. Alice knew Bella felt particularly weird still being a High School student yet being married with a house and cars and bank accounts to pay their household expenses, it was if she had aged five years since the wedding and being amongst students still kissing under the bleachers was too juvenile for her.

Bella knew now how it had been for Edward, being thrust back amongst the teens of Forks, they both identified more with the teachers than the students.

"Alice, you and Jasper are about to become engaged, stop looking at baristas."

"Just come and look, anyone can look. Just not taste," she added.

"Alice! grow up!".

Bella regretted her words instantly, it was hardly Alice's fault Bella had turned into an old married woman with eyes only for her husband. She had outgrown the girl completely, and while Alice chatted about fashion and magazines and baristas, Bella was mentally checking she had paid the electricity bill and had enough chemicals for the pool and wondering if an electrician needed to check that flickering light? She had restocked their condom supply every week faithfully, the one time they had run out Edward had refused to enter her, even though she was meticulous about taking her Pills.

She had asked him how come he had made love to her in the lagoon bareback on their honeymoon and he explained he had merely been looking for her, not intending making love and the sight of her in the water had temporarily unhinged him, he had to have her.

He had intended pulling out before he came but that had proved impossible, and he had enjoyed the feeling of coming inside her so much, he had done it again. It had been his wedding gift to himself, and to her, because she still dreamed about his body coming inside hers.

Thinking if anything had gone wrong, it was done already, it was not until he finished the second time that he got his head straight. He had panicked all night every night, unknown to her , until her period showed. What he didn't tell her was how he had visited that dark place again in those long nights while he waited for her to bleed.

She had jazzed things up, bought a whole new supply in ribbed delights and various flavors though why condoms needed to be flavored was beyond her.

Unfortunately she had said that out loud around Emmett and he had explained.

"It's like this, Bella, if you decide to give some head to a random guy whose sexual history is unknown to you, you have to use a condom. You can get all sorts of viruses and infections via your mouth, no different to via your hoo ha. You therefore would buy flavored condoms, if you are sucking them into your mouth, right?"

She had been sorry to have asked.

"Sorry, sorry, I am probably PMT'ing," Bella apologised to a sullen Alice. "Let's go check out the pretty barista."

As they took their seats in a booth in the coffee shop, Bella had to admit he was very attractive.

His eyes were such a piercing ice blue and his golden hair sat in curls not unlike Shirley Temple had sported as a child star. They should look hilarious, ridiculous on a man his age but he had pretty lips. And his skin was soft and faintly pink, and his eyes were wide enough to make your maternal instincts kick in. Somehow he was just pretty all over.

"Bella, Earth to Bella," Alice called impatiently.

"Okay, I concede, he is very pretty. I kind of want to take him home and put him in a doll display cabinet."

"I want to touch those curls. I am talking Jas into getting his hair cut shorter, I think it would curl like that, don't you?"

"I think it's the color too though, Alice, you rarely see a child with such true yellow hair like that, let alone an adult. You would have to dye Jasper's hair to get that effect."

"May I help you two beautiful ladies?" the barista said, approaching their table. Normally he waited behind the counter for them to come to him, but he was willing to make an exception.

"Um, yes, coffee," Alice managed to say.

Bella shook her head at her, and looked at the man.

"Two cappuccino's. Real milk, with cinnamon, thank you."

"It's my pleasure. I love it when some wonderful shapely lady orders something other than low fat, skinny soy, de-caff yada yada, and fills it with artificial sweeteners. That's not coffee, that's a cup of chemicals. I'm Jamie, by the way."

"Bella Cullen, and Alice Offwiththefairies," she replied.

"Lovely to meet you, I don't suppose Lady Luck would shine on me and let either of you two be single?"

"I'm single," piped up Alice.

"I'm married and Alice is engaged to be married," Bella corrected.

"Woe is me, I am always too late for the best of the best," Jamie replied."If you ever get tired of your husband, I will be here," he said with a smirk.

"Yeah, won't happen, she and Edward are joined at the hip," Alice replied.

Jamie paused.

Edward...not a common name with anyone under fifty. He had found exactly three in the town but this girl could not be more than nineteen, twenty. Her husband was either a dirty old creep or a young man with an old fashioned name.

Like Ted's son.

"Will your husband and Alice's fiance be joining you?" he asked.

"Great idea," Bella said. Alice needed either a cold bucket of water thrown over her or a cold dose of reality. She pulled her cell out and called Edward, who was as luck would have it, with Jasper and they were both in town, a street away.

"Okay, four cappuccino's" she amended the order.

"I shall wait until I see the gentlemen join you then bring them over," Jamie said, walking away backwards, winking at Alice.

She blushed and kicked Bella's leg under the table.

"Spoil sport. I was only looking," she complained.

"Alice, you were salivating, next thing he would be fucking you outside in the alley. You need a cold dose of Jasper."

The door opened and two tall, incredibly hot men walked in and Bella smiled, and waved at Jamie. He looked hard at the two men and remembered Ted saying how his "little fucker" kid had green eyes and copper hair like his dead mother.

This man was probably the right age and the hair and eyes were there. He watched the one called Bella lean up and kiss the copperhaired man.

Yes, so this was highly probably Edward Masen Junior.

Ted said the boy would go back and build a house on his mother's inheritance. Looks like he was right.

Jamie loaded the tray and walked over, placing each coffee in front of a customer, trying not to stare at Edward.

"Thanks. Edward, Jas, this is Jamie," Bella said.

"Hi, howyadoing?" Jasper replied, his eyes flicking back to his girl.

"Nice to meet you, Jamie," Edward said, offering a hand.

Jamie shook it, well, aren't we just the fancy one? Obviously whoever raised this nancy boy sent him to private school, he bet this Masen had no idea what it was like to be locked up in a cell.

Jamie went back behind the counter and took out his phone and lined up the camera, snapping off several photos of Edward. None of the four even noticed, they were all too wrapped in their partners to care.

"So, want to come over for dinner? I'm cooking," Edward asked Jas and Alice.

"Do we have plans at all, Alice?" Jasper asked.

"We were going to feast on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, if Edward can top those, then I say we go for it," Alice replied.

"I think we can do better than that," Edward laughed.

Jamie watched them leave and was tempted to just desert his post and follow them, but there was nobody on this shift with him and Ted would be very angry if he lost this job.

Jamie wished Ted was out of prison already, the damned plan was taking so much longer with his so much worse record.

Little angel Jamie had been granted parole as soon as the board saw what a wonderful change there had been in the man, he was shining with love for his Lord, and anxious to get out and spread the good word. Getting a job with a pastor or priest or whatever was not proving to be as easy as he hoped. He did volunteer work for the local parish and the pastor was coming around, starting to trust him but fuck, what a suspicious lot these small town folk were. He had expected to be welcomed with open arms, the repenting sinner, but so far he had been greeted with caution and suspicion.

He sent the photos to Ted, with a message.

"_Wondering if this model would do for your photo shoot?"_

Let the screws try and read the meaning in that.

xxx

Bella was up bright and early, and she paused at the door of the coffee shop in surprise to find Jamie on the early morning shift . He was always here when she and Alice dropped in for a quick caffeine hit after school but here he was at 7am.

"Don't you sleep?" she asked, dropping her bookbag onto the table and nodding as Jamie held up a large cappuccino cup.

"Haven't you ever heard, there's no rest for the wicked," Jamie replied with a devastating smile. He flexed his muscles and accidentally spilled milk onto his apron and shirt and was forced to remove both.

He watched her eyes as she saw his naked chest, those long empty hours at night in the cells had allowed him to build up quite an impressive six pack.

"So, how's Edward? How's Alice and her man. Jason?" he asked.

Bella came back to earth and blinked.

"Jasper. All well. All still in bed, probably. I have to get to class early, we are graduating this week, and I have things to do, being on the Graduation committee."

"Your husband looks kind of old to be at High School," Jamie said. _Too young to be Edward Masen if he was still a High School boy._ He placed her drink on the table, sitting bare chested across from her, and dabbed at his imaginary scolds with a damp towel.

"I hope I have a spare shirt here, probably get kicked out if I stay like this all day," he said.

_Probably get attacked by Alice _Bella thought.

"Edward just had to attend two years to qualify, he is twenty two, well twenty three shortly," she said."He was home schooled."

Jamie smiled.

Twenty two. Almost twenty three.

Bingo.

Bella drank her coffee, reading the notes in front of her but so relieved when Angela Webber walked in to join her, she almost kissed the girl.

"Fuck me," Angela whispered as she watched Jamie putting on a clean shirt. "I'll have one of those and a coffee."

"You should invite him out, I know you will get the Alice Cullen seal of approval," Bella replied.

"I might just do that, after graduation. I want a little more than schoolgirl games from him," Ange sighed. "Though he might like a round of 'naughty schoolgirl', maybe I won't burn this crappy uniform after all."

"So, we are all organised, caterer's ready, decorations done," Bella said, noticing Ange was nodding but not bothering to even look her way, her eyes were fixed on Jamie.

He sauntered over and placed a coffee in front of her.

"On the house, we need to encourage beautiful girls to come in here and pretty up the place," Jamie said.

"Do you want to take me out?" Ange asked, suddenly turning into a strong, independent woman that she had not been minutes before.

"That would be my pleasure. Here, put your number in my phone," Jamie said, smiling as Angela handed hers over for him to do the same.

He quickly flicked through her contacts and memorised Bella Cullen's number, then shrugged when Angela held her hand out for her phone back.

"I can never work out how to do that to someone else's phone. Wait, I'll call you, save me."

He selected her number and she saved his and Bella stood.

"Come on, we have like fifteen things to do before class. Bye Jamie," she said as she walked out.

Jamie lifted the coffee cup and poured the liquid into a takeaway cup and put a lid on it, handing it to Angela.

"Later, Angela," he said, winking. She could be useful. Depends how close she is to Bella thus Edward.

xxx

"Edward, get down here, Bella's in the hospital emergency room," Charlie Swan barked into the phone.

"Is she okay? What happened?" Edward asked frantically.

"She was in the middle of the crossroad. Car T-boned her. Looks like a few broken bones, get here now."

Angela Webber was in worse shape but all Charlie could see was his only child lying there covered in her own blood.

"It looks a lot worse than it is, Charlie, relax. She has a broken leg, a broken arm, the rest is superficial. A few cuts, I have to stitch her up and do a catscan but I am confident she is fine," Carlisle assured him.

"Angela?" asked Charlie. The Webbers couldn't afford costly medical bills.

"She's worse but even so, nothing life threatening. They both have concussion, I will be keeping them in for a few days."

Edward almost took the door off as he rushed to Bella's side.

Carlisle repeated the diagnosis and watched his son almost hyperventilate.

"Calm down, do you have your kit on you?" he asked. Just because Edward never needed it these days, was no reason for him to not always be prepared.

Edward breathed in slowly, and nodded.

"Okay, want the inhaler?" his father asked.

Edward breathed in again, and shook his head.

"You in control?" Carlisle checked.

"Yes, Bella needs me to be," Edward answered.

xxx

"What happened?" Edward asked quietly, kissing Bella's hand as she lay on her back in the hospital room his father had put her in for at least tonight. Edward would be right there beside her. He was annoyed that Alice had seen the gift he had bought for Bella's birthday, yet missed this. This accident could have killed her.

"I don't remember anything. We were having coffee, then we were in the ER," she said.

Alice hung her head, she had no idea why she hadn't been given a heads up. The things she saw were erratic, not of her choosing. She would see Bella decide to wear the brown boots not the black, but miss things so much more important.

Jasper smiled and pulled her onto his knee.

"It's not your fault."

Alice nodded.

"No signs of head trauma or internal injuries," Carlisle said, walking into the room. "The arm is more cracked than broken and the leg is a clean break. You will be released as soon as you feel up to going. The walking cast will see that the bone knits properly. Take it easy for a few days, and I will see you at home."

"Thanks, Carlisle," she replied.

Edward helped her dress and carried her to his car.

Hers was in being fixed, it was mainly just a few panels, nothing too bad, nothing structural.

It would be back for her long before the cast was removed. Ready and waiting for her when she was fixed again herself.

xxx

Jamie read about the accident as he flicked through the newspapers some customers had left behind. It didn't matter, it just meant they probably wouldn't be in for a while. He just had to keep tabs on Edward, and wherever Bella was, that's where he would be.

The weeks passed and finally Angela came back into the coffee shop.

"Angela, did you get my flowers?" he asked. "I didn't feel we knew one another well enough to visit you."

"I did, thank you, Jamie. I finally got my cast off, so I can rejoin the real world."

"Maybe we should schedule that date we missed out on," he suggested. _Maybe I could grill you for an evening and find out all you know about the so-called Cullen couple._

"I wish we could but I already missed the beginning of term. I'm off to college tomorrow, SeattleU. Bella and Edward and his brothers and the girls are already there. Bella had a cleaner break than I did, her leg was fine before college started."

"Bella and Edward are away at college?" he checked.

"Yes, they won't be back a lot, both are doing extra classes to get through quicker. They are hoping to cut their courses into three years instead of four so I don't imagine they will have their noses out of their books for the next three years, let alone come home to visit."

Jamie took the apron off and lay it on the counter. Time to get a job in Seattle, it seems.

"I happen to be moving to Seattle myself soon, send me your new address," he suggested.

"I will be in a dorm. The others all got dorms already, Edward and Bella got a married couples dorm."

"We should catch up and have that date once we are both settled in, I have to find an apartment near my new job," Jamie said.

He chatted nicely to Angela until she left, and even managed a quick kiss on her cheek.

She was his link to Edward. He needed her.

He looked up Situations Vacant in the Seattle Times and pulled out his phone.

xxx

Bella stood at the curb, looking at her car. It was a good as new, but no better. She still hated driving it and had managed to talk Edward into swapping cars on their trip to the college. Now he was using his Volvo again and expecting her to use her own car.

She had no memories of the accident but she was sure it had been the car's fault. It didn't like her.

It liked everyone else, but with her, it just didn't like co-operating and behaving like a good car should.

She sighed and put the keys back in her purse. It was a nice day for a walk, maybe she could get a taxi back. She was glad she had her sports shoes on and admitted to herself she was wearing them because she had planned to walk to town from the start, when she got dressed this morning.

By the time she had walked for an hour or so, her head was thumping and her stomach felt like it was the center of an active volcano. She bent double by the roadside and vomited into the grass beside.

Maybe sunstroke?

Not a big problem for the residents of Seattle.

She sat for a while, then gave up and called Edward to come get her.

He wasn't mad at being called from his lecture, just concerned, and he took her home and put her to bed, checking her temperature and helping her to the bathroom to throw up when she had to.

In between, she slept and he sat by her bedside and wiped her sweaty brow with a cool damp cloth and kissed her fingers. She knew he was there and she loved that he cared but she felt like utter crap.

It kept up for a week and by the end she was feeling well enough to be horny again as she watched her husband tidy the dorm and bring her chicken soup from the deli.

Of course, they only had a few days together again then Edward went down with the virus and she cared for him just as diligently as he had cared for her.

xxx

**I know it's fluff but it's fluff with a purpose, enjoy the calm.**


	14. Chapter 14

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 14

Edward Or Jacob Part 1

Bella's only thought when the condom broke was she was glad they had the backup of her being on The Pill, and she thought no more until the day she was sitting in class, idly scribbling in her diary and noticed the date.

Her assignment for Creative Writing was due but more worrying, her period was overdue. She rarely gave it a thought, it was always a little erratic but never this late. She turned back the pages and counted again, maybe she had wrongly predicted when it was due.

Her last one had occurred the day after Emmett's birthday party, she remembered feeling uptight and crappy that day and was glad when the night was over and the bleeding started and let her revert to her normal happy self.

That was, 1,2,3,4,5,6 weeks ago? Six weeks and three days to be exact. She shook her head and went back and counted again.

"Alice," she whispered, and the girl beside her looked up.

"Yes, Bella?"

"Was Emmett's party held on his actual birthday, I can't remember." All she had marked in the diary was his actual birthdate but often birthdays fell at inconvenient times and they chose another day to celebrate them.

"Four days early, remember, we couldn't book the restaurant he wanted on a weekend and anyway he took Rose to that Muse concert on the actual day. Why?"

Bella felt her stomach drop because that meant it had been six weeks and three days plus four more days thus seven whole weeks. How could she have not noticed?

She felt fine though.

" Nothing, I just couldn't remember," Bella said, turning slightly away to indicate the conversation was over and she stared at the book in front of her but the words refused to stay still and wandered all over the place.

She walked from class swiftly when the bell sounded and headed for the car park before Edward came looking to take her to lunch. Her copy of his car key was in her purse and she got into the Volvo and headed for the nearest pharmacy and pregnancy testing kit, just to allay the fear in her stomach.

It would be negative but she needed to see that for herself.

"Do you have a restroom?" she asked the cashier as she paid for the kit.

"Out the back, it's really staff only," the boy replied so Bella threw him a smile and he crumbled, handing her the key.

Who knew three minutes could take so darn long?

It seemed more like three hours, the clerk would come looking for her or suspect she was using the facilities to shoot up in.

Finally, her watch chimed that the time had arrived and she confidently looked at the stick. Two blue lines, that was negative, right?

She checked the box again.

Wait, this was faulty. One line meant negative, two said positive.

She took the back up stick out and began the process again, sighing at the shoddiness of the test stick. Nothing worked properly these days. Probably a ploy to make you panic and buy another kit.

She wondered if Edward had gone to the car park when he failed to find her quickly. She decided to pick up some vitamins and that hair conditioner he had used the last of and swore was the only kind that kept his hair soft.

Three minutes, she tapped her pen on the purse as she waited.

Positive again.

No way.

She dropped the used sticks and packaging into the waste paper basket and went out to wash her hands.

She knew the test was wrong, she was not tired or nauseous or anything like people said.

Grabbing three bottles of the conditioner plus the vitamins, she headed back to school and parked.

Edward was at the usual table in the little campus eatery where they usually ate lunch so she sat down and handed him his hair products.

"i had to go get my vitamins anyway, so I got you these," she said.

"Thanks, but why didn't you leave them in the car?" he asked.

"That would have been a normal thing to do, wouldn't it?" she said. "Sorry, I'm distracted."

"I thought that was my job, distracting you," he said, leaning to kiss her neck.

"I need to go see a doctor," she said.

Edward jerked back as if stung.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Just women's trouble. There's nothing to it, I am sure. Just better safe than lying in bed at night panicking," she answered.

"Panicking about what, Bella? You have to tell me now."

"I'm kind of late, just a little bit so I did one of those home tests and it said positive but I know it's not right."

"It can't be right. You haven't missed any Pills, right?"

"No, never," she replied. "I know how important it is to never take any chances until you get the snip done. You see me take them every night."

"How late are you?" he asked , suddenly filled with panic.

"My last period was the night of Emmett's party, so that was seven weeks ago," she replied and he blanched to a sickly gray.

"So, the night the condom broke was two weeks later," he said. She thought about it and nodded.

Edward stood up and grabbed her arm.

"Come on, we have to see a doctor now, in case something needs to be done."

Bella followed behind him as he strode to the car and sat silently inside.

This was the right solution, if there were a bundle of cells to be gotten rid of, all the literature said face up to it and do it early.

It would be okay.

xxx

The doctor read the chart and wrote something then faced her.

"Congratulations are in order, the due date would be somewhere around July 4th," he said.

She wanted to scream, firstly there would be no due date and now it would be stuck in her head, a forever reminder of the same date Phil died.

Oh lucky 4th of July.

"Bella needs to book in for a termination," Edward said and the doctor looked down over his glasses at them both.

"You are Mrs Bella Cullen? This is your husband?" the man questioned.

"What does our marital status have to do with anything? Married couples don't always want to have children. If one of your lot would have agreed to giving me the vasectomy I begged for, this would not be happening."

"I think you need to take a little time to talk about it and get used to the idea, then make a decision," the doctor suggested. "And of course, we do require you to attend two counselling sessions just to be sure you really want this done. Nothing can happen for at least two weeks."

"Right, thanks, God, I love the medical profession, always there in your time of need," Edward growled and stood up, taking Bella's arm.

She followed him outside.

"I need to make that appointment somewhere, Edward," she said crossly. His tantrum was all very well but she wanted this over now.

"Let's go visit my parents, Carlisle can help us out without all the counselling bullshit," he said.

The drive back to the University was silent, Bella frowning at how this could have happened, Edward praying he would make it back to their dorm before he hyperventilated.

"I have to hand in my notes at the office, I'll meet you back at the dorm," Bella said when he parked the car.

She walked away quickly and Edward fell back against the seat and gasped loudly as his throat closed.

Alice stood in class and turned to Jasper.

"Edward," she said and Jas jumped to his feet and followed her as she left the room.

"Mr Cullen? Miss Cullen? Is this lecture too boring for you?" asked the professor.

"Women's problems, I need Jasper to..."

"Spare us the details, go."

Alice stood outside the library and waved at Emmett, who immediately closed his book and left to join her.

"Edward," she said.

"Fuck no, I thought we were past all this shit," Emmett growled. "Where is he?"

"His car, carpark," Alice replied and the three of them hurried across campus and found him slumped in his seat, ashen and his lips tinted with blue.

"Breathe, Edward," Jas said, opening the glove box and pulling out Edward's drug kit.

"Inhaler?" he asked and Alice nodded.

Emmett held his brother upright as Jasper puffed the medication into Edward's mouth.

All then waited and Alice shook her head.

"Again."

As soon as his breathing became less labored Emmett and Jasper helped him to walk and headed for his dorm.

Alice kicked the door shut and the boys laid Edward on his bed.

"What the fuck happened to throw him back here?" Emm asked.

Alice frowned and concentrated.

"Bella's pregnant!" she said, gleefully, then her face dropped.

"She's going to choose the baby," Edward said. "She is going to leave me."

"Actually she is determined to end this now, today, if possible," Alice said sadly. Jasper took her hand and kissed her fingers.

"She can't have a baby, Alice, you know that. Edward wouldn't..."

Edward started to panic and his breathing sounded raw and loud in the room.

Jasper sighed and pulled the syringe out of the kit and filled it.

"Hold him, Emm. Edward, you know the drill, this will calm you down and make you sleep. Okay? Alice will stay here with you, if you want."

"Bella," he answered.

"Where is she?" Emmett asked.

"Office," Edward replied as his brother administered the dose and repacked the kit.

Alice sat on his bed and held his hand.

"Edward, stop it now, I don't like what you are thinking. Stop it NOW! Bella is having a termination, she is already wondering about whether she will have to stay in a clinic overnight or if it's just an out patients procedure, and whether she has to take pajama's, she isn't even considering having the baby so calm down. She would always choose you."

Edward shut his eyes and Alice pretended not to see the few tears leak from beneath his lids. Shit, this was the one scenario Edward had never wanted, he loved Bella so much and putting her through this was literally going to hurt him more than it hurt her.

"She'll choose me?" Edward whispered.

"She is 100% determined this ends as soon as possible so you two can get back to normal," Alice assured him.

Jasper raised his eyebrows.

Alice shook her head.

No, not set in concrete, this was not a firm vision, just a look at how things stood at this moment in time.

Some visions were firm and permanent and looked like a video of the event, crystal clear and always came to be.

This image was wavy at the edges, no color, no permanence. This vision could change if anyone changed their minds. That could only be Bella, Edward could not endure a pregnancy, there was no way he would call a stop to Bella's current decision.

Bella came back to the dorm and found it dark, with the blinds closed and Edward asleep.

"Migraine, he will be fine," Alice said, kissing Bella on the cheek.

Bella refused to look into her eyes and went to boil water.

"Tea? Thanks for sitting with him, how long will he sleep?"

"A couple of hours, he's going to be fine to drive home later, maybe sixish?" Alice answered.

"You know?" Bella asked.

"He didn't tell me, I just know these things. Sorry."

"It's okay. We are hoping Carlisle will just do what has to be done, tonight maybe, so we can get on with it. We may stay a week or so, can you let everyone know we are ill or something? Contagious."

"No problem, Bella. I'm sorry this happened, and you have to choose."

"There is no choice, Alice. He told me from the get go there would never be babies. I accept that. I do wish this had never happened but we will get through it, together."

Alice nodded, Bella was still sure of what she was saying. It would be over, soon.

So, that's how the day that started like any other, ended with them driving through the night to get back home. Bella had to ask him to stop for her to be sick every half hour or so and even threw up in the car once, forcing them to drive with the windows open in the cold night.

Edward cleaned the car at a truck stop but the interior still smelled stale.

Esme was thrilled to see them, Carlisle was wary from the get go. Once the hugging and kissing was done, Bella went into the kitchen to help Esme make coffee and Edward rushed his father up to the study and explained the situation.

"I hope you will now do the freaking vasectomy and prevent Bella having to go through something like this ever again," he growled. "Are you happy now? I told you repeatedly I never wanted to father a child. Now my wife gets to risk her life in a completely unnecessary procedure that could have been avoided so easily."

"She is still on the Pill?" Carlisle asked.

"And we still use condoms, every time."

"Then it seems impossible for this to have happened," Carlisle said.

"The condom broke, once, about five weeks ago. She was mid cycle but she was on the Pill. I know she was, she had been under the weather with that vomiting bug and it was the first time since she got better that we had even done anything intimate," Edward explained. "I was getting her Pill for her myself every night, so she wouldn't forget while her brain was fucked up with the virus."

"Then there is your explanation. The condom broke and the Pill would have been useless, with her vomiting."

"So you are saying this is my fault?" Edward growled.

"I'm just explaining how it happened, no contraceptive is ever 100% and you two were unlucky to have the two methods fail at the same time."

"So, anyway, you will do the termination?" Edward checked. How it happened was irrelevant, it just needed undoing, and to never happen again.

"Not me personally, I do not do terminations and never have. I don't like them, though I know there are circumstances where they are the best answer. I'm not sure this is one of those times, though."

Edward stood and paced.

"She cannot have a baby. Not to me, not my child. I have told her if she wants a baby ever, I will agree to donor sperm, or adoption or whatever she chooses. I simply refuse to father any child myself and pass on his genes. You know that."

"And Bella agrees?" Carlisle asked.

"Of course she does, she knew from the night of our first date that this was the one unbreakable rule. God, Carlisle, I could forgive her anything except if she forced me into fatherhood."

"Do you suspect she did that?" Carlisle asked.

"No, never. I just meant, she knows this pregnancy is impossible and has to be fixed."

"I can do the vasectomy tomorrow but you will have to hang around a few days, Bella will have to be counselled, then there should be no problem," Carlisle said resignedly. Edward would not change his mind.

Carlisle had wondered in the past what Edward would actually do , if it came to just this situation, it was always easier to have firm convictions when circumstances meant you never had to have them tested.

"Thank you, now we should go downstairs."

The men walked down and Carlisle stopped and caught Edward's arm.

"Please do not tell Esme anything, please, for my sake."

"Fine, I didn't intend to," Edward replied. He was not in the habit of hurting anyone, this would be fixed and they would move on as if it never happened. Nobody but he and Bella and Carlisle need ever know. It would be as if the baby never existed.

That theory was shattered when they entered the kitchen and found Esme crying in Bella's arms and Bella looked over the woman's shoulder and shook her head.

"She poured me coffee and I had to run to the sink and throw up. She worked it out for herself."

"Edward, you have to let Bella have this baby," Esme cried.

Edward sighed and grabbed his hair and sat down at the kitchen table.

Great, what should have been quick and easy and straight forward was now a dramafest and he would be tagged the bad guy.

"Esme, you know that cannot happen. I cannot father a child, it's that simple. Bella can have a baby to a sperm donor any time she wants. I will completely agree and back her up and help organize everything."

Bella frowned.

"As if I would ever want some other man's child, don't talk crazy."

Esme burst into tears again and Carlisle rescued her from Bella's arms and held her himself.

"So, you two will never have a family? You are insisting she abort the only baby that she will ever have inside her? Edward, this is unspeakably cruel. I know what it is like to lose a child, she will mourn the loss of this baby forever," Esme cried.

Edward stood and pushed his chair back under the table, and left the room. His face was closed and dark and very angry. His eyes however looked haunted and Bella flinched at the depth of his pain. He looked at her and she wanted to cry and scream and throw herself off a cliff. He was saying he would rather die than put her through this, but there was no alternative, nothing he could offer instead. The death of the embryo or his death, she had to choose.

"She will never forgive you," Esme cried after him.

Bella reached for Esme's hand. There was no room here for morals or ethics, couldn't she see Edward was on the brink of insanity?

"It's okay, really. I always knew I was choosing Edward over motherhood."

"That's fine, Bella, I would never tell anyone they had to have a child, but this inside you is a baby already. It's a little Edward or a little Bella and it trusts you to keep it safe from harm."

Bella scowled, and stood up abruptly, and followed Edward upstairs. She hadn't needed to hear that, better it be a bunch of unwanted cells, disposable, forgettable.

The bedroom was dark but she could smell the distinct odor of tobacco and she walked to his balcony.

"Your mom's just upset, she will come to terms with it."

"Will you, though, Bella? Are you finally going to see me as a murderer too for making you do this?" he asked, tapping his cigarette against the railing. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. He killed strangers, I am asking you to kill your child. Somehow at this moment I think I know who the worst offender is."

"I thought you gave up smoking," she said.

"Times like this I wonder why I bothered. You decide, you do whatever your conscience dictates. I won't force you to do anything you don't want to. Just know, choosing to keep the baby means you raise it alone because I will not be staying around to panic over every time he hits another child. I told you I could not do that from the start."

Bella turned and went into the bathroom and for once, the shower had no comfort to offer her.

She dried off and pulled on a Tshirt from Edward's closet and slipped into bed, and slept.

Dreams about small copper haired mini Edward and Bella babies screaming into the night as dark shadow people tried to kill them filled her head and made her cry out in the dark and Edward held her tightly and kissed her forehead.

He knew he was probably losing her over this, but his conscience would never allow him to raise the grandchild of a heartless killer.

He may not be a killer himself, but he soon would be. Clearly he was heartless, putting the woman he loved through this atrocity.

There was no other answer, he wished to God he had stuck with the thicker brand and never experimented with the new types of condom. It had seemed like fun at the time.

He fell asleep from pure exhaustion in the early hours but he hadn't minded being wake, at least he would have this night to remember, his wife in his arms. It may be their last night if Esme had her way.

xxx

Morning found him awake much later than usual and Bella was gone.

Edward showered and stretched his aching muscles and made his way downstairs, no spring in his step, joy had suddenly left his life.

Esme and Bella were sitting together on the patio in the sun, so he went to where he knew Esme's keys hung and borrowed her car. If it annoyed her, well it was just one more thing, this time a small one.

He opened the doors of the Volvo and disconnected the interior lights so the car could air.

xxx

Carlisle led him into a treatment room. He has asked Bella at breakfast this morning if she agreed with what Edward was having done and she had replied it was his body and he made the decisions about it, just as she would make the decision about her own.

Carlisle introduced Edward to the urologist from Seattle whom he had called in a favor from and Edward lay semi naked as the vasectomy was performed. Carlisle was blank faced as he assisted and Edward could feel his unease and displeasure but if the man who had been the only good father he had ever had would have followed his wishes from the start, none of this would be happening now.

The saddest thing was Bella had accepted the fact she could never have a child if she chose Edward and she had still wanted him.

There was never any need for her to be in this mess.

A nurse checked him periodically and Carlisle drove him home himself, saying he would bring Esme back with him to get her car. That was all he said, other than advising Edward to rest and keep the area cool with bags of frozen peas, and he handed him a bottle of strong pain relievers which Edward looked forward to starting now the injection was wearing off.

He limped into the house, and Carlisle directed him into the downstairs guest room, and told him stairs were out for a day or so, but he would feel better starting tomorrow. Edward knew that wasn't true, he would never feel better again. The physical pain was a welcome distraction, it kept his mind on himself and not on the monster growing inside his wife, laughing at him because it knew , in the long run, it would win.

Bella entered the guestroom with coffee and cake and set it beside his bed on a small table.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, as Carlisle walked in and handed Edward the bag of peas.

He placed it where the most pain was and swallowed down two painkillers and sipped the coffee. They were strong and this type usually meant he would be affected by drowsiness and could not handle machinery. Hopefully there would be some respite in oblivion. He eyed the container of pills, there were enough. Carlisle abruptly grabbed the bottle back.

"I will tell your mother to give you two more in four hours," he said, leaving them alone in the bedroom.

"I will be fine. How are you? What have you decided?" he asked, although he knew the answer.

"Esme and I talked, and talked, she can't accept us aborting but she feels if we go ahead then give the baby up for adoption, she could live with that. She would still be sad but it would not hurt her as badly as the termination. What do you think?"

"I think my Mother thinks if you go ahead with the pregnancy, you will become attached and want to keep it."

"I can't promise you that won't happen. It's not what I want though, Edward. We can try to treat it like a temporary ailment, just wait it out, and I will ask your father to deliver it by c section with me under anesthetic so I sleep through the entire process and never have to see...it. I could be put in Surgical and treated like any woman having a gynecological operation, and we can go on with our lives like it never happened. I think this is what I would prefer, but I need to know if you will leave me if this is what I choose."

Edward felt small and ashamed and any doubts he may have ever harbored about how much his wife loved him disappeared as she sat beside him, offering to try and please everyone.

Everyone but herself.

"Bella, you really should do what you want to do, don't think about what Esme wants or what I want. Do what you want."

"Not an option, I can't have what I want, but this is the nearest thing to that so I will have the baby and surrender it."

"You will get so much shit from Alice and Rose, they will guilt trip you for the entire time and make you feel I'm the poorer choice, that you should keep it. I can live with that if you do change your mind, Bella. I want you to be able to live with whatever you decide."

He could die with her choice but death would be easier than life if she kept the creature and raised him and Edward had to watch it turn into his father.

"We will think of something to tell the people at school, some way to explain. Maybe we could defer in a few months and take a study break and go somewhere and wait it out."

"That's a good idea," said Carlisle, walking back in, eying his son carefully. It was as if the man could read his mind and knew what he was planning. Now he wanted to become Edward's babysitter and keep him from doing the inevitable. "Come here, come home, we will not put any pressure on you. Just let us help, it will be a difficult time for everyone."

"We will think about it," Edward replied. There would be opportunities but he may as well let Carlisle think he was the one in control.

He didn't really think there would be an option that ended with Bella choosing him once the baby was born, but this way at least he got to be with her some months yet. She could do this her way and she could decide to keep the baby and he would not put up any resistance.

He would pack his bags when she went into hospital and the minute she decided, he would go.

Go to some college across the country, arrange the divorce and set her free, try and live without her body in his arms at night.

Go to some cliff top and let the sea below welcome him into her open arms.

He had always figured as a teen that the only sex he would ever have would be one night stands with strangers who knew nothing beyond the pretty face and he fully expected that would be his life once Bella chose the baby over him. Her entry into his life had been an unexpected blessing, but always a temporary one. He knew from the very start he would fuck up, just not how. Now that little mystery was solved.

Empty arms, empty heart, occasional nights spent in the beds of random women.

Some men would think that a life worth pursuing, he already knew it would be cold and empty and meaningless and he accepted his Fate. He had a decision to make as well. Endure the rest of his life alone or choose the peace of death.

After this fuck up, it was no more than he deserved, after all.

xxx

"I really don't know how we will handle this," Edward sighed. "You are pregnant, people will notice and I want you to be treated with the necessary respect and care to get you through this safely. People won't do that if they don't know. We have to tell but I don't know what to say." They were playing the pretend game, as if there was a chance she would choose him.

Bella sat down and chewed on a slice of cold chicken, at least it was tasteless and didn't cause her gag reflex to react.

"I have had a thought, tell me what you think. You know my friend Sam Uley? He and his wife Emily can't have kids and they are looking for a surrogate to carry their embryo for them. Maybe I should tell everyone that's what I am doing, carrying a baby for a friend. That way they won't say all those things about how happy we will be once it's born and buy us stuff."

"Can you cope with that story? Many students will think that's as bad as what we are doing really. There's a lot of resistance in some circles to assisted reproduction."

"I can live with whatever they say because I know the truth. I already have my story sorted. Tell me how it sounds. I grew up with a best friend, I think I'm naming that friend Jake, it's kind of a happy, carefree name, right? Jake White. No, Jake Black! My imaginary friend when I was a child was Jake Black! Perfect! He has a wife who is a genetic dead end and can't carry her own embryos so I am carrying their child, Jacob."

"What's her name?" Edward asked, amazed she had already come up with a cover story.

"Lee, Lisa, Leanne, Leah. I like Leah. Jake and Leah. So, I am carrying baby Jacob for Jake and Leah Black who live...somewhere else. Phoenix? That's the only other place I have ever lived, so best to keep as close to the truth as possible. Would you buy this?" she asked.

Edward shuddered and wondered why the fuck he suddenly felt so disturbed.

He didn't want to keep the baby so why did it matter she had named it Jacob, after her imaginary friend?

She was hardly going to name it Edward.

"That sounds...plausible," he said.

"Edward, I need to distance myself from this baby from the start. It's going to be really hard for me when I start feeling it move, so I need to convince myself as much as everyone else that it's some other couple's baby. It's the only way I will be able to cope. Please help me."

He pulled her into his arms and kissed the tears from her cheeks, and wondered how long she would be able to survive living this charade?

He was going to kill her, as surely as if he tossed her off a cliff into the ocean below.

She was trying to find a way to cope and to do the right thing , the only thing, for him, but would it kill her love for him?

When?

At delivery, or earlier?

He kissed her tenderly.

"I promise I will never ask anything of you ever again after this, whatever you want, you get. I am so sorry this happened, Bella. I really thought we had ourselves covered. It can never happen again, but still, I am just so very sorry for doing this to you. I love you, my Bella."

She nodded and hid her face against his chest and he felt so badly he was surprised he kept breathing.

It was true, she loved him unconditionally but there must be a point where that love ended, surely. Where that point lay remained to be seen.

Bella finally fell asleep in his arms and he went back to trying to study for his exam next week.

His mind refused to keep on the subject, he kept shooting his sleeping wife looks and wondering how she could bear to tell that lie, that this was not her baby.

It was the perfect solution of course, people would treat the whole thing as a three day wonder then move on, and the problem would be solved. Everyone would know Bella was pregnant and needed to be taken care of, and they would know she and Edward were not about to become parents.

Ideal, right?

Why was he so bothered?

He couldn't come up with a better cover story himself. Emmett and Jasper and the girls would know the truth, nothing could get past Alice but they loved him and Bella, they would help them.

xxx

By the time they returned to college a week later, word had spread that they had both been ill and contagious and Alice had kept up the illusion they were both holed up in their dorm, so their return was nothing noteworthy.

Edward still favored one leg and he explained his injury was the result of falling out of bed in the height of the grip of fever, and it raises a few laughs, and was soon forgotten.

Nights were the same as always, Bella still wanted him to lay his body around hers. She demanded he make love to her every night, and the irony that they now could do that without a condom was not lost on him. What should have been the best sex of their lives was always a reminder of what lay ahead and he knew Bella cried silent tears while he was inside her, he just hoped she didn't know he did as well.

She never stopped to admire any baby on campus, she didn't read any pregnancy or childcare books or buy a single baby item but Edward was still sure when it came to the crunch, it would be Jacob 1 and Edward 0.

It was only a matter of time now.

xxx

The letter from the Governor sat on the warden's desk, maybe he should frame it? These last years with no riots, no serious incidents, no stabbings in the showers, and not a single death in custody. He wished he could take credit but he knew as well as everyone else did, what happened in this prison was down to one man and that man was not him.

Ted Masen's transformation from trouble-making, accident causing, lord of death and chaos to believer in all things holy was what had changed.

He feared the man would revert, he admitted that, as he signed the letter of recommendation for the parole board. He wanted Masen out of here before he gave up being good and righteous, because it was inevitable that he would tire of the game one day. The warder had seen men like this before, men who reached the bottom and found a way up again but those men had not had black hearts like Masen.

The man was pure evil, no matter what words spouted from hips lips.

He would be back, they would release him and he would kill and fuck up a few more lives, and he would be back.

Maybe not here, or at least, maybe he could stay out the last two years the warden had left before retirement.

"_I strongly recommend this prisoner be considered for release," _he read. "_Edward Masen has shown a miraculous change in attitude since sharing a cell with a very devoted Christian lad who recently was released on parole himself and I have no hesitation recommending Mr Masen be released to begin his career as preacher in the town of Shelton, Washington._

_He has a parish waiting to welcome him and he studied independently into the night to acquire the necessary qualifications for this post. I consider this man to be ready to return to civilisation and wish him all the best for his new start in life."_

The warden shuddered, on paper everything he had written was true, it was in his soul that he knew he was aiding and abetting a killer.

A hundred years behind bars would not be long enough but there would never be a sentence that fit the crimes this man was suspected of. They only had him for one murder and grievous bodily harm, the man had shot his own son for God's sake, though they all knew the long trail of similar crimes in Washington and Canada were most likely down to him as well, they just couldn't prove it.

The warden sealed the envelope, along with the fate of many of the waiting congregation and placed it guiltily in his out tray. He needed the raise in pay so his pension would be adequate and for that, he needed Masen to revert to his former wicked personality on the outside, not in here.

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	15. Chapter 15

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 15

Edward Or Jacob Part 2

"Okay, everyone got the story straight?" Edward asked. Bella was in the shower, and Alice and Rose had come to see how she was so Edward called his brothers and sat all four down to explain the cover story.

Alice stilled a few times and he watched her face. She merely looked sad and confused, so Edward was fairly sure she was not seeing anything different to what he was saying. Once the boys left to get to class, and Rose had drifted off to the library, Edward sat Alice down.

"I know it's completely unrealistic to think this will play out like I need it to. Bella is a good person and good people do not desert their infants unless they have no other choices. She has choices, she knows I would support her and it for life. She knows this will never stop me loving her and wanting what is best for her but she knows I cannot consider raising him. Carlisle has me on so many drugs I am surprised I wake up in the mornings."

"How do you feel?" Alice asked. He looked like shit. He was pale even for Edward, and the purple bags under his eyes spoke of lack of sleep and too much stress.

"I feel numb, removed, like a spectator, but without them I feel like doomsday is just around the corner and I can't do anything to stop it. Like I'm standing in the middle of the road and there's traffic and people screaming at me to move and do something but all I can see is the tsunami that's heading our way, about to wipe out all the minor concerns and wash me away. I'm not sure I will exist once she chooses the baby."

"I see Bella choosing you, I see her walking out of the hospital with empty arms. She is sad, and confused, and worried about the relationship, whether it can overcome this horrendous event, but I definitely see her choosing you, Edward."

"How firm is it, Ali?" he asked.

"It's about 99% firm, Edward, full color, the sides are maybe a little hazy, no, they just firmed. Bella will walk out without Jacob. She will sign him away."

Edward sat on the edge of the bed and pulled both hands through his hair and put his knees up to his chin. He would be rolled in the fetal position if laying down, Alice realized, it was only the drugs keeping him from lying in the corner until the birth.

"That's wrong, so wrong, she should not put me ahead of her own flesh and blood. She will regret this, Ali. We have to stop her."

"Edward, you stop this. We can't change a fixed vision. She is signing that baby away. It's what you want so why are you behaving this way?"

"God, I want Bella but I want Bella to be happy. How can she be happy without Jacob? She must love him, he is growing inside her, Ali. How could you not love something growing inside you? She wouldn't have it taken out when she thought of it as a cluster of cells, so if she wouldn't abandon it then, how can she later?"

"I cannot explain it, she loves you that much, Edward. That's all she is thinking when she leaves the hospital. Relief it is over, desire to forget and put it behind her, desperation for you to welcome her home and accept she did it for you and she will survive."

"What does she think about Jacob?"

"She is refusing to think about him or any other babies. I don't get that, she keeps chanting not to think about babies. Maybe she will never be able to look at any of them again. She is wounded. I can see her heart has lost the smaller half, but the larger half seems to be strong enough to keep her going for you."

Bella opened the door and stopped when she saw Alice.

"I am going to do it, don't tell me any different. I am doing it no matter what you think you see."

"I know you are, Bella. I know you love Edward enough to choose him over Jacob."

Bella smiled.

"I do do it? I do walk away?" she asked.

Alice nodded, a sad smile on her face.

It was a sad sort of peace on Bella's face hearing this, like she had asked "I am going to accept the cancer will kill me?"

Jasper kept assuring her this was for the best but she couldn't for the life of her see how that worked. Not for Bella, maybe for someone like Rose who truly could compartmentalise pieces of her life and lock them away and ignore them until they shrivelled and died from lack of interest on her part.

But Bella? Bella was so like Esme they should have been natural mother and daughter. Esme could never have been dragged kicking and screaming away from her son, she would have had an adrenaline rush and killed everyone who stood between baby Carl and herself.

And not regretted it.

She would have broken chains and smashed her way out of any prison cell they put her in, her child was her life.

Yet Alice knew Bella was going to walk away from her child.

xxx

Nights were cold and Bella lay every night in Edward's arms and ignored the nudging in her belly. Why did it have to move? If it was just the increase in girth of her waistline she could have coped. Plenty of girls around campus were fatter than she was and not even pregnant, she could have been part of the chubby girls club.

While her waist measurement increased, her frame seemed to shrink and she looked smaller and more frail as the weeks passed.

Edward did everything he could for her while coping with his own torture, he cooked and shopped and found little treats he hoped she would eat. At first he had been all about health food and nutrition, now he just wanted her to eat. He would settle for chocolates and milkshakes. He wouldn't even admonish her if she chose a diet of fries and Coke.

She seemed to be dying in his eyes, he could not make her eat more than a few bites of the least flavored food each day.

He threw out yesterday's chicken and replaced it with today's beautifully cooked bird. Organically fed, free range farmed, happy chickens made better flesh he hoped.

She would eat maybe a tenth of the bird if that. Chicken seemed to be the one thing she could keep down.

She was his flower and she was wilting.

The day she managed to eat the eggs he cooked her for breakfast and usually threw in the trash when she refused them was a breakthrough. Bella sat still at the window for an hour afterwards, fighting with her digestive system but she kept them down.

Edward felt like he had invented the wheel.

He was buoyed up all day, Bella had eaten eggs.

Maybe he could save her.

She saw the look of triumph on his face and swallowed. _Do not think about food, pretend it was him eating, not me._

Somehow she outlasted the nausea and the eggs were digested. Of course this meant he made eggs every morning and she fought with her stomach every morning then one day as she finished and sat on the chair by the window, she felt fine.

In fact, she walked back to the table and took the half eaten piece of toast from his hand and nibbled on it.

Edward watched her face, waiting for the inevitable, then helped himself to more toast and kissed her cheek when she dropped just the crust back onto his plate.

Things started looking up after that. They would never feel happiness exactly, that was too high to aim but as his body spooned her at night and he was groggy with the effect of the drugs, he felt almost content. This was all he had ever wanted, his Bella in his arms, sleeping while he watched over her. His Bella feeling safe and loved, knowing he loved her more than his own life.

He wished hopelessly that Carlisle had a drug that could make him accept the baby and let them be a family. He saw the monster in his dreams despite the Valium and assorted cocktail of other drugs. Always the same, always it ripped his Bella apart being born and the floor dripped with her blood as he stood there, trying to put her back together while the creature tore and killed the others in the room. Always the dream ended with the door opening when everyone else was dead, and Ted standing there, offering him a cigar. Smiling.

Edward wanted sleep but he wished he could escape the dreams. As if real life was not enough torture. The lack of sleep, the drugs, the guilt, it was becoming overwhelming.

He was slipping.

The edges of his world had taken a black hazy frame around it. Color had faded and almost gone.

He was heading back to that familiar horror that his life had been before Bella.

She was the one and only bright light in his sky now, her stars of hope and anticipation and joy and excitement had faded and died.

Edward assumed making love would be the last thing she wanted to do, it was that act that got them here in the first place but every night she stroked his body and kissed his lips and pushed her body against his, seeking the only form of comfort he could give her, so of course he complied.

He made love to her gently, with a tiny touch of joy and a whole heap of sorrow, with so very much love and so very much regret , with hopelessness and remembrance of how it had once been. How it had been pure joy, pure happiness, pure love.

He could still feel her love but it was tarnished now, he had taken that pure emotion and bruised it. He shut his eyes against the bruises and tried to show her how much he loved her and always would.

xxx

The other students who knew 'the story' openly discussed surrogacy and asked Bella questions, especially Angela.

"I just don't get how did you can remain detached from Jacob? How did you think you would feel when he was born and you have to hand him over? How can you do that, even though he is not your child, surely it will be hard? Feeling his kicks, having him inside your womb, I can't understand how he can be merely a lodger, kicked out when his lease expires.

I bet you and Edward immediately get pregnant and have a baby of your own," the girl suggested, and Bella had to resist falling apart.

There would be no other babies from Edward, his vasectomy had seen to that. No matter what the future held, even if he miraculously were to discover his mother had cheated on his father and the monster was not his even actually related to him, it would be too late anyway.

She hurried away and Edward found her shaking and crying in a dark corner of the science building and took her back to the dorm and into bed, and kept her wrapped in his arms the rest of the day.

xxx

"You should have had window locks installed years ago," the preacher said as he screwed the locks into place.

"God bless you, I just never thought about getting them," Dorothy replied. At 81 things like that were still new to her world, she didn't get out much.

"Now, this is important, do not let anyone borrow these keys, I will hang them up by the front door and you be sure to check they are always there," said Reverend Masen.

He was taking care of his flock, it was what he did these days.

He pocketed the second set as the grateful old cow boiled the water and made him an atrocious cup of coffee that he poured into the potted plant on the window ledge first chance available.

"I made you a fruit cake," the old bat said, handing him a cake tin so old rust streaked it's edges.

"That's mighty kind of you, Dorothy, I do like your fruit cake," he said with a smile.

Well, the dog ate it when he smuggled slices of the doughy feast home in his pocket. He doubted the animal would survive an entire cake though. Oh well, it's yapping was annoying anyway.

"Are you coming for dinner this Thursday night as usual?" the old woman asked him.

"Dorothy, you are too good to me, God sees the goodness in your heart and blesses you," he rambled on by rote.

Finally he was outside, and he shook his head as she failed to remember to lock the door behind him or even put on the little gold chain that would at least slow a burglar down for a split second. He must warn James she was having her daughter come stay next Wednesday, he should do the job before then, even tonight. Maybe if she woke up while James was there she would have a heart attack and save him from another indigestible roast rabbit dinner.

xxx

Bella's six month examination at the OB/GYN showed everything was fine, as always he didn't say anything to either Bella or Edward, but virtually ignored them both as he scanned her abdomen, made notes and nodded to indicate it was done, they could go.

Edward wiped the clear gel from her belly and knew his faced looked like the face on any loving husband watching some disease kill his beloved wife. He helped her put her clothes back on and held her tightly inn his arms, both pretending not to notice the tears the other was trying to blink away.

No doubt the other pregnant ladies waiting their turn assumed their child was disfigured, dying, malformed, doomed, by their faces during these visits. They looked at the young couple with sympathy and some even cried a little themselves. No doubt thanking God this was not their baby.

Edward paid at the Reception desk as Bella waited, her face always tense after these visits.

He drove her back to school and suggested she rest but she shook her head silently and walked from the car towards the library, and he saw Alice walk out and wrap his wife in her arms.

Edward sighed, maybe it would end before the birth.

Alice still insisted her vision had been true and was still set in stone, but Edward couldn't see it himself.

He grabbed his cellphone and called his father.

"The OB just called with her scan results and faxed me a copy. He said she is looking well and has gained a little weight at last. How are you two coping?" Carlisle asked.

"It feels like the end," Edward said honestly.

"Come home, Edward, bring her home to us. Esme will take good care of her and she promises to never try and change Bella's mind. You will be there, you can listen and be sure she never starts putting ideas into Bella's head. Bring her home and come home yourself, this is as hard for you as it is for her, I know that. Worse in a way, because you know there is no other answer for you, only for her."

Edward closed the phone.

It was time.

He walked to the dorm and sorted their books and went to the office and filed the necessary papers for him and Bella to complete their studies online, paid the required fees, and handed in whatever books they no longer needed.

Everything was set, Carlisle had set up everything ready in their own studies at the house.

Bella's was a large airy room overlooking the forest behind the house, Edward's was next door, but looking to the side, towards his parents house. That structure could be just glimpsed between the trees. There was a side gate and a path that linked the two properties together. His study also had a large window looking at the front driveway and the gates. He would be able to see anybody coming or leaving.

Bella hugged Alice tightly and Alice whispered to her she would be fine, she was doing the right thing by Edward and she was an amazing woman.

Jasper stroked her back as she clung to him, and kissed her cheek.

"He got lucky the day he met you, Bella. You saved him then and you are saving him now. Thank you, darlin'."

Bella nodded and Emmett gently scooped her up and kissed her cheek.

"I don't get it, I don't understand at all, but you do what you have to, Lil Sis, and know Emmett will always be here for you. You need me, just call and I will be there. I promise you that."

Bella kissed him and even Rose seemed moved to tears.

She kissed Bella quickly and turned away.

Bella understood, this was a strange and unreal situation, a married couple giving up their one and only child for adoption to strangers, robbing them of the chance to ever be aunts and uncles. Taking what could have been the brightest star in their world and banishing it.

It was too hard to understand.

She got into the Volvo, someone else would drive her car home for her when they next visited, not that she cared if she ever saw that heap again. Maybe she could ask Emmett to 'steal' it while it was here and trash it up somewhere and claim the insurance?

Edward clicked her seatbelt around her and started the car.


	16. Chapter 16

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 16

Edward or Jacob Part 3

Paying His Dues On The Due Date

Everything ends, that's just the way life is, and the night Bella woke soaked in amniotic fluid, Edward held her tight knowing it was all over bar the shouting.

The last three months living with Esme and Carlisle had been surprisingly bearable. They visited their own house next door when they studied or wanted to be alone, but his parents kept their promise, and Bella's condition was treated more as an illness than anything else.

An illness with a cure.

They both felt the need to be around his parents as the final stretch played itself out.

Carlisle alone had seen the fetus on the scan monitor, they had requested he keep any details to himself just as the other OB had in Seattle, all Bella wanted was his assurance each month that all was well, and it had been. Carlisle did seem particularly careful with Bella and took her blood pressure morning and night, and scanned her weekly by the end.

He insisted she stay on a healthy diet, eat five small meals each day, take vitamins, exercise carefully and rest a lot, more than she and Edward expected. He preferred her laying on her side, saying the fetus would get more oxygen that way.

Bella became a little alarmed at his extreme care but he assured her all was going well and if she insisted on knowing no details, then he could only say she needed to be extra careful.

Edward asked about her health and any effects the growing uterus would have on her body and his father suggested ways of keeping her more comfortable, like only making love from the back, and Edward had been happy to comply. He wanted no more contact than necessary with the nudger or the bump it caused, but it did worry him slightly to see Bella almost afraid of her own body.

While she would soap up in the shower or bathtub, she never soaped her stomach, and he suspected maybe touching the child even through her skin was more than she could bear. This mystified him, she was a good person and she should be bonding with her baby, so when she chose and Edward was gone at least she would know this small person as much as possible. Despite Alice's assurances, Edward could not believe Bella would ultimately abandon Jacob for him. Maybe she would leave the hospital with empty arms but there was nothing to stop her going back to reclaim him minutes, hours, later.

Carlisle banned sex with penetration at six weeks prior to the due date as a precaution, no explanation. Outercourse was fine but he spoke to Edward and told him to keep things very gentle, and not to invade inside Bella in any way...no fingers allowed.

Edward's research suggested a low lying placenta was the problem and he had no wish to cause Bella any harm so he complied.

Every time she shopped, he expected there to be something small and maybe yellow, cute and practical, or pale blue seeing she was convinced it was a boy. The baby would not come with it's own clothing, yet she never bought one single thing.

Edward concluded his mother must be hiding a stash of baby things somewhere but he never saw any evidence, there had been no moments of either woman hurriedly shutting bags or sliding small items under cushions when he entered the room they were in after a trip to Port Angeles.

Bella was reluctant to have contact with Renee, knowing her mother was too fragile to cope with what they planned to do, but this seemed odd to Edward too, as he lay on his bed and wondered where his wife would choose to live and with whom. She could hardly arrive on the Swan's doorstep with a baby her own mother had no idea was on the way. Charlie knew, but he was stoically keeping the news to himself, not seeing any point causing Renee further pain over a baby she would never see.

The man couldn't understand Edward's attitude at all, Bella's arrival had been the very best thing in his life. Charlie's own father had been a quiet, taciturn man with no social graces, he hated people and rarely spoke to anyone other than his long suffering wife and son yet Charlie himself was different to that man, and Bella was cheese to his chalk. Grandchildren didn't have to inherit any part of the grandfather in Charlie's opinion.

They would regret this, of that one thing he was very sure.

Edward had assured Bella he would buy her another house anywhere she wanted but offers like that ended in the few arguments they had.

"I won't need another house, I am not keeping Jacob and I'm not leaving you," she would say, and kiss his hand or cheek. She was as affectionate as ever, and never refused him sex even, though at times it must have been wearying for her. He wished he could be noble and leave her alone but he needed to feel that connection between them, even when it was simply stroking one another by the last weeks.

He needed to continue showing her how much he loved her despite what he was putting her through and miraculously, she wanted to touch and show her love for him back.

He loved Bella, he had never loved anyone else a hundredth as much. He loved Esme like a mother but he would never choose her or anyone else over his wife.

Esme was protecting herself , too, never asking questions about the baby or the scans. Carlisle must know things, like the size and the gender, but as Bella had requested to never know any details ever, Carlisle respected her request and didn't impart any tidbits at all to his wife, even though he had Bella's permission. Not that Esme asked.

Edward finally let Bella go and went to waken Carlisle and the four of them set out for the hospital in the cover of darkness.

It was comforting and fitting, like a secret rendezvous. Essentially that was exactly what it was. Bella was taken off to be prepped for the c section and Edward was gowned up to sit beside her.

"There's no real need for Bella to be asleep, she will be under a tent of sorts and can't see anything anyway unless we take it down at your request," Carlisle explained.

"What's the safest option for Bella?" Edward asked.

"To be awake. You will be right here , sitting level with her chest, if neither of you look over there, to the right, then you won't see a thing. The head nurses will leave the room soon after delivery and nothing has to be done in this room at all, other than to Bella."

"Would it be safer for her to have a vaginal delivery?" Edward asked. He was afraid he knew the answer, but was torn between wanting what was physically best for his wife versus what she would better cope with mentally.

"Edward, normally I would say yes, but this pregnancy is …...different. Special."

"Why?" he asked.

"Bella is carrying twins. They are identical and sharing the same sac. It's best we deliver them by c section because it can get tricky with two cords in one sac, we don't want to risk one of the babies choking on it's cord or the other twin's."

"Twins?" Edward said, sad beyond belief. An instant family. In any other circumstances this would be amazing, joyful news.

Bella walked in and sat on the bed.

"Let's get this show on the road. The sooner we start, the sooner it's over and God knows I need it to be all over."

"Bella, Carlisle thinks it would be safest if you were awake, with just an epidural. You won't feel much or see anything."

"Will I hear him? Will I hear Jacob cry?" she asked.

"Do you want to?" Edward asked.

"No, no I couldn't stand that."

"You could use an iPod, if you lay there watching in Edward's direction wearing an iPod, all you will be aware of is feeling pressure, then it's gone, then we stitch you up. The nurses will walk past you on your right, just don't look that way."

Bella hesitated, her crutch had been knowing she would be asleep and miss everything therefore never have any memories to recall. But if she saw and heard nothing, was that enough? She wanted to do the right thing, but right and wrong had been mixed up and confused and changed for a long time now, she no longer even knew what right was.

Right was the side she could not look as the nurses took Jacob away.

She had to keep her eyes on Edward.

"Okay, whatever, but I don't want to hear Jacob cry " was the only thing she had said as she was set out with her arms outstretched as if reaching for the side walls of the room.

Carlisle did all he could, erecting a small curtain across her below her bust at the top of her abdomen so the babies would not be seen by them, and Edward sat at her side and held her hand, or rubbed her knuckles, whatever she needed.

"iPod in now," the nurse ordered, so he moved his chair closer and fitted the small buds into her ears and she turned her head to face him and they stared into one another's eyes as Edward heard the thin wail, followed by a second similar cry minutes later.

As the air filled their lungs, both cried harder, torturing him and tearing at his soul but he bit down on his tongue and stayed strong for Bella. She was being amazing, he could not believe she was taking it this far because he could have no hope against twins.

Bella looked at Edward and he kissed the top of her head and assured her the worst was over now but he kept the buds in her ears until he saw the nurses approach, about to pass them.

"Help me, Edward," she pleaded in terror. "Don't let me look at him."

He reached for Bella's face and held her cheeks steady with his hands so she wouldn't turn. Edward held her tighter and she kept eye contact, despite her tears, and made no attempt to see what she thought was her only son as he was taken outside. Edward waited until he heard the door close as the nurses had scurried from the room with their bundles.

He took the ear buds out and told his wife she had done so well, and how proud of her he was, and she gazed into his eyes, and he saw the terrible turmoil and pain he was causing her. Her small hands shook violently as they clasped on to him.

"Bella, there are two. Twins. Keep the babies, Bella. I will pay support for you all, I can't stand the pain in your eyes," he said quietly, wanting her to know he would be fine. "See them, hold them, let yourself be a mother. Choose Jacob and his brother."

He had spent most of his life in isolation, he was merely turning back to where he had been before, and always knew he would end up.

"No, I choose you," she said stubbornly. "it will always be you, Edward. Twins are good, better. They will have one another, you only have me. I am choosing you."

He stayed with her, kissing her fingers, stroking her face, crying silent tears himself at her loss and distress that he was forcing her to endure as Carlisle repaired her wounds and then nodded to say it was all done.

He knew this whole thing was so wrong for his wife and he couldn't do it to her. He loved her too much to put her through any more. He had ruined the pregnancy and sucked all the joy out of it, now he had to go away and let her choose, but she needed to see and know what she was choosing between.

"I'm going to go, and give you time and space, and if you decide the other way, believe me, I will understand. I won't fight you, I will just go and leave you all to it. You know my parents and your parents will be there for you. You can keep our house in the meadow, I will sign it over to you, and I will cover your bills and put money into an account for you and the babies, you will never have to worry about money ever," he promised. What other use would there ever be to use the compensation he had been awarded? It had sat in an account all these years, growing in size. Carlisle had insisted on paying for their house, the house he had helped Bella design and had built exactly as they both wanted.

He could leave the house behind without a backward glance. He needed her to be secure.

"Call me later, I will be prepared to know this is goodbye and you are choosing your children. Bella, I won't come back, when you choose the babies, I promise I won't ever come back and spoil things again. I will go to finish college across the country somewhere new and live there after I graduate. This is my cross to bear, you need to keep your family. You need to know you can keep them and raise them and enjoy them, without me making you paranoid about them."

"Please don't go, don't make me choose them over you. Don't make me see them, Edward. I can do this."

"Bella, I can't be a father, but you are such a good person, you can be their mother. They may turn out okay with you there to guide them. I'm so sorry this happened and I know it's too unfair of me, making you choose between me and your flesh and blood. Do yourself a favor and just let me go."

"Come back soon," she begged as he stood and he kissed her tenderly and left.

He avoided walking past the nursery even though he was sure Carlisle would have made sure the blinds were down so there would be no accidental heart breaking glimpses.

Esme was sitting near the front entrance and she handed him her keys so he could drive them home. She asked how Bella was, and he assured her she was fine, amazingly well considering what she had been forced to endure.

The outside world looked the same, to his surprise. Nothing earth shattering had occurred, birds still sang as they welcomed the new day, traffic was starting to flow for the commuters who worked away from Forks, the world still turned.

Two new lives had entered this world and nothing seemed to want to acknowledge that.

He felt angry and cheated and sad and a little excited, however inappropriate.

Twins.

They had twins.

Twins he would never see, but Bella must see them.

He felt so torn and tormented he handed the keys back to his mother and instead walked to the passenger door and got into the car.

xxx

Edward packed his clothes and other belongings and sat his bags at the door, then walked back to his parents house where he at least had company while he waited. He forced down brunch that his mother made him, trying not to choke, checking his cell phone frequently.

He needed to fill in this endless stretch of time while he waited for her call announcing her true decision.

He paced the bedroom he had always taken refuge in and checked his cell again. No calls, no messages.

He walked to his wall of cd's and started to rearrange them, sorting them by artist and year and his preference. Nobody would get the system but it was there, he alone understood it.

He selected his very favorite cd's and tossed them on to the bed, he would pack them and maybe send for the rest once he was settled somewhere.

Three hours flew by before he was satisfied he had the rest of the cd's how he wanted them.

The sound of a cellphone buzzed but it was his mother's not his. She was clearly talking to Carlisle and he went back upstairs once he asked his mother if there was a problem, was Bella okay?

Esme nodded and assured him Carlisle said she was fine.

He went outside and paced around the pool, maybe he should call her.

Maybe she was learning how to feed her sons or bathe them, or how to change a diaper. Maybe she had forgotten he was waiting for her call.

He went to their house and carried his bags to the car and Esme came over.

"Where are you going? Have you packed Bella's things too? Aren't you even letting her have time to recover?"' Esme asked when she saw his suitcase and duffel bag at the door.

"Mom, she will choose the babies. You know Bella, she loves me, despite everything, how much easier for her to love her own children."

"There's no way you can stay and help her?" Esme asked. She too was certain Bella's motherly instinct would kick in, and she was probably at the nursery window already.

Esme remembered her own excitement when her doomed baby was born, once her body had been showered and dressed, she had rushed to find him.

"I can't, Mom, It's the one thing I can't do for her. If she asked anything else of me, I would find a way to do it. But waiting to see your sons change and become monsters? How could I handle that? How could I live with wishing the children I raised would just die rather than show their true colors? Those boys are like ticking time bombs."

"Girls," Esme said softly.

"Girls?" Edward said. He wished she hadn't told him that, now he felt the slightest twinge of hope that girls would be different. How many female killers were there as opposed to men?

Eleven to one, he read on the laptop in his father's study. Could this make a difference? For every one female serial killer there were eleven men doing the same crimes.

Were his daughters worth the risk?

They was also Bella's children, that must halve the odds further, was there now a 22 to 1 chance either would be a killer? That seemed like long odds.

"They are the granddaughters of a serial killer," Esme said, looking over his shoulder. "You are working out the odds of his child, not yours. They are even less with your generation added in. Those little girls don't have a killer for a father, Edward. Just a grandfather."

"God, I want Bella to be happy, I want her to keep her babies, I want to do the right thing. Is this the right thing? Do you think I could tell by looking at them, if they are as good and innocent as their mother?"

"You will never know unless you look at them," Esme replied.

Edward stood and hugged her.

"I have to get back there. I have to try, don't I?"

"Oh yes please, Edward. We will all be here for you."

They both turned as the front door opened and to their shock Bella walked slowly inside, assisted by a paramedic , and sat on the couch.

"Are you okay for me to go? Dr Cullen will be here shortly," the man said and Bella agreed he should leave.

"I don't like hospitals, what's the point of having a doctor as a father-in-law if I can't come home and be treated privately," she said. "Edward, make me a cup of tea please."

"I will," Esme said immediately and headed for the kitchen.

"How did you get here?" Edward asked, rushing to her side and lifting her legs up so they were elevated.

"Ambulance of course. Your father wanted to bring me but I told him he had an adoption to arrange and to get on with it. I want them to be adopted together, by the one couple. I want them to always have each other."

Edward stood and raced to the door and Bella watched in surprise as she heard the car leave.

"Would you like to lie down?" her mother in law asked, and Bella nodded. Insisting on leaving had been a little rash maybe, she still ached and throbbed in certain areas, and could barely hobble let alone walk. Standing completely upright was a joke, not happening even full of pain medication.

Esme helped her into the downstairs guestroom and she lay on the bed and sipped her tea as Esme held her hand.

"What's going on?" Bella asked.

"Edward needed to do something."

"I am scared, Esme. You know I love Edward unconditionally, do you think that will ever change? Can unconditional love turn into unconditional hate? You were right, this is the only pregnancy I will ever carry, will their absence kill our love?"

Esme patted Bella's hand and cried with her.

xxx

Carlisle sat in the rocking chair and held his first grandchild and admired her pretty little heart shaped face. So like her mother. Same big brown eyes, same soft brown hair, though too soon for the mahogany highlights. Small hands, small feet, none of her father anywhere.

He looked up in surprise as Edward walked in.  
"You changed your mind? You want to meet your daughters before they go?" he asked."Social Services will be here soon. As requested."

Edward took the small bundle from him and sank into the other rocker.

He opened the blankets and gazed at her little body and she stirred and opened her eyes.

"This is the first born? I know what her name has to be," he said to his father as he looked deep into the same deep chocolately pools as her mother had. "Isabella. Isabella Marisol Cullen."

"You don't have to name her, the adopting parents will change it anyway. But if you name her you have to name her sister as well."

Carlisle lifted the second baby from the other bassinet and handed her to her father.

Edward gazed at her then laughed.

"This is Ruby. I don't know her second name but I know she is Ruby Cullen."

"Isabella and Ruby. I like those names."

"I think we want to keep her, Dad, her and her sister. Will that be a lot of trouble?"

"No trouble at all, son. I just need to make a couple of calls, be right back. Support their heads, that's it."

Carlisle had the whole adoption aborted in minutes. He tore up the papers Bella's scrawled signature was on as he proudly told everyone who needed to know that the parents had changed their minds. They were not surrendering their baby girls after all.

It must happen all the time.

Bad luck for whoever topped the list and was next to get a baby but on the other hand, any baby would do them. These little girls were special. These little girls were Cullen's.

xxx

Edward gazed into the first baby's eyes then the other's, and spoke from his heart.

"I cannot tell you how sorry I am for ignoring you two all this time. You are not what I pictured Bella was carrying. I truly thought she had some sort of monster inside her, not two small, sweet baby girls with brown eyes and their mother's lips. Can you forgive me, Izzy? Can I ever make it up to you, Ruby? I didn't even hold you when you were first born and you needed to know everything was okay, all that pain and effort to be born was worth it, my little loves."

How could he have been so afraid of these tiny babies?

He wasn't sorry he had gone ahead with the vasectomy, he never wanted to feel the feelings he had during the last nine months again, the fear and hopelessness, the knowledge he was the one killing Bella, not the baby inside her.

They could do this, they could raise Izzy and Ruby and never tell them the dreadful secret, it had to stop here and now.

HE was nothing to them, hopefully he died long before these girls were even conceived. HE could not sully these innocent children.

Edward would not allow it.

If HE ever turned up on their doorstep, Edward would not hesitate to shoot him as dead as he always should have been.

The level of protectiveness taking over his heart shocked him. Suddenly there were new somebodies in this world that could be so cold and lonely, that needed him. Not just Bella, Izzy and Ruby needed him as well and from now on, he would be there for them all.

"Can I take them home? Bella needs to hold her daughters."

"I am taking a few days off, with Bella recovering from a c section she needs extra care and help, let's go borrow two baby seats from Emergency and take Miss Izzy Marisol Cullen and Miss Ruby Middle Name Unknown home to their mother."

"We have no clothes, no bottles, nothing. Can we borrow these they are wearing until someone does some shopping for us?"

"Edward, I think you will find what you need in the box in my office that Alice dropped off yesterday. And I think you will find you have a pale pink nursery with two cribs installed when you get home. Alice took your spare key."

Edward allowed his father to take a baby and give her to a nurse for bathing and lay the second twin in her bed.

The box in the office was gaily wrapped in baby print paper with pink balloons and inside were two complete matching going home dresses complete down to bonnets and bootees and tiny pink vests and disposable diapers.

"Oh, I think I know Ruby's second name now," Edward laughed, lifting the two engraved baby name bracelets from their box. " Look at these."

"_Isabella Marisol' _the first was engraved in perfect copperplate, the second had "_Ruby Alice" _clearly written on it.

xxx

Bella felt the mattress depress as Edward sat down beside her, and she opened her eyes.

"No, Edward, what are they doing here? I came home so I wouldn't see them. This is cruel of you," she cried.

"Bella, you have to see them and hold them. I want to try, I think we can do this. I think it's going to be okay. Alice is coming here, she and Jasper are in Forks, she has been buying things for the twins. We just have to ask her but whatever she says, maybe we can raise them right and steer them in the right direction and never tell them about him. Let's pretend I was abandoned and know nothing of my past, that I was too traumatised to remember. Let's let Edward Masen Junior die along with his father, and Edward Cullen live. My life started when Carlisle and Esme took me in, then really started when I met you. That's all they need to know. They have two sets of grandparents, I don't think Esme will mind if the twins assume she is my natural mother anyway."

Carlisle helped Bella sit up propped with pillows and placed another across her abdomen so her wound was protected. Edward handed a baby to her, and Bella smiled at the small but pretty face of her firstborn daughter.

"Isabella Marisol, meet you Mommy," Edward said.

"Isabella. I like that."

"I know you do. And I kept the Mary, Marie, Marisol thing going."

"What's her sister's name?" Bella asked as Edward lifted Ruby out of her carseat into his arms.

"Ruby Alice, I chose her first name but apparently Alice saw her second name, you can change it if you want. It's only fair you choose one of the girls' names so if you want to change Ruby's name, it's fine with me."

"Ruby is perfect, and I like that we chose to name her after Alice," Bella laughed.

A soft knock sounded at the door and Esme and Alice came into the room.

"Oh they are too precious," Esme cried and Edward handed Ruby over to her grandmother.

He took Alice's hands and sat her down to face him and Bella.

"We need to know, Alice. Do you see anything about them?" he asked his sister.

Alice placed a hand gently on Izzy's head and smiled.

"Worst thing she will ever do is waste two years of her life on a loser. Medical student she meets at medical school, he will get into drugs and drop out but she will wake up and leave him soon after so don't panic. Nothing else, maybe a little shoplifting incident when she is ten or so. She will still be healthy and active into her 80's. There will be a few worrying moments with her health as a child, fever, rash, it's nothing. That's as bad as it gets."

Esme brought Ruby to Alice and Alice repeated the feat.

"Oh, she is going to marry and have three kids and name one after me! How sweet! Thank you, Ruby, you are officially my favorite."

"Alice," Edward growled.

"Sorry. Let's see, only bad thing she does is a very short lived fling with a married man when she is in her early 20's, and you two will never meet him, Thank God, so you don't get to kill him. She will meet her husband straight after, oops, probably should not have told you that. I will tell her never to tell you anything about Mr Wrong. She will live as long as her sister, and there won't be any health issues for her, until the end, and you two will be dead by then, so nothing to worry about. They are both safe, Edward, no bad blood from him."

"So, you will keep them?" Esme asked anxiously.

Edward smiled at his wife.

"We will keep them. We will stay here until Carlisle gives us the all clear to take them back to our house. I don't know what will happen about college, that remains to be seen. But right now I can't find it worth bothering about. We have twins to raise."

"We will help, we all want to help," Esme assured them.

"Oh hell, I have to somehow explain to Mom how I suddenly gave birth to twins without knowing I was pregnant, and had them on July 4th, a date she hates," Bella exclaimed.

"Actually , Bella, Renee has been a changed woman since your wedding. We have dinner with her and Charlie at their house every Tuesday and they come here Thursdays, and she has been like a new woman. Strong, happy, not a flinch last July 4. She had a headstone erected for Phil and now she has accepted his death, she is happy all the time. She and Charlie are like newlyweds.I think you will be surprised at how well she reacts to this. Tell her you wanted to surprise us all, we cam act surprised. We have not bought a single item for them, so it is as if we didn't know either. We will play along and be suitably thrilled and astonished."

Edward smiled at Bella and took Ruby back and wondered how a human being could be so small and so perfect and so unexpectedly precious. Bella swapped Ruby for Izzy and he kissed her as well. Two of a kind, two perfect little angels.


	17. Chapter 17

The Striped Pajama's

Chapter 17

Births, Deaths, and a Whole Lotta Life

(Ted's Song: Used To Love Her by Guns and Roses.)

Ted took the guitar from James and started strumming, it, then frowned and tuned the strings.

"Do you play? I'm just learning. Something to do to stop me going insane while I help all these fuckers until they all trust me," James said.

"I used to write my own songs. I wrote a Lullaby for Elizabeth, my wife," Ted replied.

"Really?" choked James, Ted did not come across as the type of man who would write a lullaby.

"Yeah, I'll play it for you:

_I used to love her, but I had to kill her_

_I used to love her, but I had to kill her_

_I had to put her_

_Six feet under_

_And I can still hear her complain"_

James laughed and shook his head. "Very nice, a little too romantic for me, but yeah."

"_I used to love her, but I had to kill her_

_I used to love her, but I had to kill her_

_I knew I'd miss her_

_So I had to keep her_

_She's buried right in my backyard."_

"God, I hope not, that's too risky, where is she really?" he asked.

"She's in her own backyard, this meadow her parents owned and made sure I couldn't inherit. They didn't like me for some reason. It went to the snivelling little fucker she forced onto me. I never liked kids."

"_I used to love her, but I had to kill her_

_I used to love her, but I had to kill her_

_She bitched so much_

_She drove me nuts_

_And now we're happier this way."_

"Oh ain't that the truth. First woman I offed was my bitch, Victoria. Nobody knows that, by the way. Cut her up into tiny pieces and burnt the bits to ashes. Washed her down the sewer," added James in complete agreement and understanding.

_"I used to love her, but I had to kill her_

_I used to love her, but I had to kill her_

_I had to put her_

_Six feet under_

_But I still hear her complain."_

Ted handed the guitar back to James.

"I feel the urge to visit her. It'd be good to walk all over Elizabeth again. Come on, boy, we are going to visit that Goddamned little rathole named Forks. I'll introduce you to the missus."

xxx

"Place is locked up tighter than Fort Knox," James commented as Ted slid down in his seat as the gates automatically opened. Someone was going out or coming in. No cars in the street, must be going out.

James opened a road map for show and watched over the top as the blue car drove out and the gates immediately shut behind it.

"Get the numberplate, could be useful," Ted ordered.

James scratched the numbers and letters into the border on the map.

"I don't think this asshole of the world would have too many cars that cost that much. Little Fucker must be rich," James said, his interest rising.

He recognised man with red gold hair who was walking towards the now closed gates.

"Get out of the car, go walk up so he doesn't come out and see me," Ted ordered.

James did so and approached the gates.

"Hey ,Edward, long time. I'm looking for the Fairweather house, do you know where it is?" he asked and the copperhaired man frowned. He looked tired.

" Jamie? Hi. I never heard of anyone named Fairweather. I think I know of most of the families here. They new?"

"Yeah, just moved here a few months ago," James confirmed."They said Fife Street, that's this road, right?"

"No, I know for a fact Fife Street is in Brereton," Edward answered.

"Shit, no wonder I can't find them. Thanks, I had better go update the Natsav and find out where the heck I should be. Bloody technology."

James got back into the car and drove away, waving at the man at the gates.

"So,was that fun, seeing the Little Fucker all grown up?" he asked Ted.

"Looks like he survived. I figured he did since I didn't get charged with his murder but until you tracked him down I assumed he was at least crippled. Seems I'm not as good at hitting my target as I thought."

"So, what are we doing? Going home?"

"No, I think we will pay Junior a visit. That car his woman drove looked to have quite a roomy trunk, didn't you think? Room for a couple of visitors that wouldn't be welcome at the front door?"

"Nice," said James. By the look of the cars in the open garage and the clothes Edward had been wearing, there would be some choice pickings in his house. And they weren't shitting on their own doorstep. Nobody knew them here, other than the soon to be dead Cullens and their friends knowing Jamie. They had never once asked him his last name, not even Bella. He was that invisible to them.

He shrugged, he could kill the friends if Ted wanted.

Ted would definitely want to kill the Little Fucker himself. Probably kill Bella first so Edward would suffer more.

He pulled in at a cheap motel and pulled out his wallet. Credit card he stole yesterday from that blind old fool should still be okay to use.

"A room with twin beds for Ernest Harold Towers and friend" he told the clerk.

"Surcharge for weekends. It's Saturday."

James wondered if he could kill this moron when they left.

Leave him a bullet in the brain for a tip.

xxx

Edward rolled and hit the alarm before realizing he didn't actually have an alarm clock or need it. Izzy was wailing loudly, he could distinguish between the cries of his daughters no problem. She was the impatient one and he stumbled from bed and scooped her from her crib.

"What's up, Princess? Today is Sunday, the day of rest. Do you think you can remember that for next week? Daddy would love to sleep in on a Sunday and then spend some time playing with Mommy, not changing diapers and mixing formula. How about that, just for Daddy? Just one Sunday off?"

He dropped the soggy disposable into the nappy bucket and slipped a clean one under the tiny bottom of his firstborn.

"Daddy loves Izzy very much but Daddy would love Izzy even more at 6am, instead of 5am. Look at your sister, still asleep."

Ruby rolled and started so suck her lips loudly so he was warned, his second daughter wanted a feed as well and would be awake any minute. He was going to have to wake Bella after all.

Even three months after delivery, Bella still looked a little pale to Edward. She was tired all the time, despite Esme being here all day most days, and Alice and Rose had suddenly decided to come home every weekend to help.

Edward wrapped Izzy up again against the morning chill and headed for the kitchen.

The buzzer for the front gate rang and he hit the button that allowed him to communicate with whoever was there.

"Edward, it's Renee. I had a feeling the girls might be awake early, buzz me in and I can take over for you. Charlie is getting pretty good with bottle feeding now."

Edward gratefully hit the buzzer and took two bottles of formula from the fridge and stood them in the bottle warmers as he carried his daughter to open the front door.

His eyes were still only half open and he gazed at Renee and thought she was almost the most beautiful woman in the world at this moment.

Handing Izzy over to her grandmother, he shook Charlie's hand, leaning the other against the door frame so he could remain upright.

"Go back to bed," Renee ordered, checking the temperature of the formula on her wrist then handing baby and bottle to Charlie, who promptly sat down grinning at the baby drinking loudly in his arms.

"Now, where is Miss Ruby?" Renee said, bustling to the nursery as Ruby made her first squeak.

Edward stumbled back to bed and fell back under the covers and his wife moved over and snuggled up to him.

"Babies?" she said.

"No, Edward," he replied.

"Crying?" asked Bella.

"No, just damned tired," Edward said, putting his arm around her.

"Wet pants," she suggested.

"I wouldn't be surprised, I hardly have the energy to get out of bed," he answered.

He felt her hand wander down his stomach and into his pajama pants and to his surprise, there was one part of him still capable of rising.

Bella kissed his cheek and his hand grazed her right nipple.

She stroked her hand up and down his shaft lazily and he stroked and squeezed her nipple.

He felt her hand go limp and his dick followed as they both fell asleep.

xxx

"Bella, you have not been out of this house since you gave birth," Alice said crossly.

"I have, I went to..." Bella frowned. Surely they had been somewhere.

Esme and Renee did their grocery shopping, Alice bought everything the twins could wear if they were completely changed from the skin outwards ten times a day, Rose arrived with make up, perfume, hair care products, insisting Bella was not to turn into a housewife and stop looking after herself just because she was a mother.

Alice checked Bella's walk in closet.

"These jeans still have their tags on them. So have these! Bella, what have you been wearing?"

Bella looked down, oh pajama's. So she had forgotten to get dressed once again.

"Get in that shower, wash your hair, it's as bad as Edward's," Alice growled. "Rose and I are dressing you and taking you out. Today."

"But it's Sunday," Bella wailed. "A day of rest."

"Well, we are only here weekends and we have given you plenty of time to start rejoining the real world so get washed, and Rose and I will do your hair and make up and you can wear this outfit I put on your bed. You have five minutes while I grab a coffee and then we will both be back."

Bella felt the water wash over her and was about to get out when she remembered the shampoo. By the time Alice was back she was pretty sure she had washed and conditioned her hair but not sure she used the products in the correct order.

Alice sat her on a chair and the two women went to work and did their magic.

Bella sipped the coffee and held the cup out.

"More."

"Jasper, another black coffee for Bella, two sugar, she needs the energy," yelled Alice.

Jasper walked in and kissed Bella's face.

"Sorry , we tried to reign Alice in," he said, handing her the cup.

Bella nodded, knowing that was like trying to stand in front of a hurricane and suggest it changed direction.

She stood on command and the women dressed her. Jasper quietly looked over her body, she looked good. Trim and no marks other than the pink line across her pubic region where she had been cut open to get the twins out. Her breasts were firm and perky, Jasper liked perky breasts.

He walked out and did the thumbs up to Edward, who was too tired and confused to know his brother just saw Bella naked.

"Where are you taking her?" Edward asked. Bella looked beautiful, he had to give the girls that much credit.

"Lunch at some civilised restaurant in Port Angeles. A little retail therapy, the shops are open today. Coffee at Bella Rosa before we allow her to drive home."

"Make sure she is actually awake before you put her behind the wheel," Edward advised them.

xxx

Ted and James watched the three gorgeous women walk back to Bella's car and open the trunk to drop in their shopping bags. It was fate, they were here checking out the security on the local bank as you do, and up drove a very familiar car, parking right in the street across from where they sat together in the shaddows as James used his phone to photograph interesting features of the bank building. Like the Pizza shop leasing out half the lower floor.

But suddenly the bank was on the back burner. They had other fish to fry.

"Go pay those boys on the skateboards up there to create a diversion so we can hide in her trunk," Ted said and James did as he was told.

Bella caught sight of him after he had come to an agreement with the leader of the unruly pack, and she called out his name.

"Hey Jamie, how are you? We haven't seen you in an age. Sorry things didn't work out with Angela. Her disappearing like that was a shock to everyone."

Her disappearance had been nothing to do with James, he hadn't killed her. Left her up the duff maybe, but not killed her. That soppy Ben wanted to marry her, she should grab him with two hands, she was used goods and not many men would be interested.

"Let me help you with those," Jamie said, putting the bags in deep so there was plenty of room at the front. He pretended to close the trunk and leaned on it so it would not spring open again and reveal the pen he had placed to stop the clasp working.

"So, you ladies done bashing the plastic?" he asked.

"We are having coffee then heading home. Bella has responsibilities these days," Alice smiled, hands clasped behind her back. Okay, she loved Jasper but Jamie was pretty eye candy. A girl could look.

A boy on a skateboard yelled out to Rose, who immediately walked forward up the sidewalk to reply.

"Skanky ho, want to earn a dollar?" the boy said.

"Come here and I will kick your ass and you don't even have to pay me a dollar," Rose replied.

Alice ran up to her side.

Bella shrugged at James.

"I guess I had better stop Rose brawling in the street. Nice seeing you. We should all get together sometime."

_Sooner than you think, _Jamie smiled. Regardless of what Ted said, he would be having the pleasure of fucking these three fine ladies before they died. Not negotiable. He would start with the snooty blond who pretended he didn't exist.

"Bye," said James, turning as if to walk away in the opposite direction. Ted sauntered across the street and he and James slid into the trunk as the two smaller brunettes were grabbing at the Amazon further up the sidewalk. A group of spectators hid the car from their view anyway. James pulled the biro out and pulled the catch shut.

"I hope it's a quick coffee," Ted whispered. It was unseasonably warm and the heat inside built up quickly.

Both he and James sighed a sigh of relief when the doors slammed and the car started. It seemed coffee was not happening.

The trip back to Forks was fairly smooth except when Bella stopped at lights and grated the fuck out of her gears.

"Shit, I can't believe the Little Fucker let's her out on the road, she is a shit driver," Ted said.

"She has responsibilities. I think maybe you are a Grandpa," James said, winking.

"Then we kill his kid first, in front of him. Shoot it in the back."

James shrugged.

"Do what you want but I am having my fun with those three bitches."

"I may just join you in that. If I shoot Edward in the back properly this time, he can sit there paralyzed and watch before I kill them then finish him off properly."

"Sounds good," said James, bracing himself as the car stopped again.

"Fuck, here we go," he said as the gears crunched.

xxx

Bella cursed and grabbed the stick and started the car again.

"I think the traffic behind are all applauding you finally got us moving," Rose said, watching the truck driver behind mock clap silently at her.

Bella pulled out and the car shuddered and stopped, too quickly for the man behind and he slammed his truck into the back of her car.

"Is everyone okay?" Bella said shocked as the car stopped that terrible screeching of tortured metal and remain in place. The brakes were excellent. The airbag obscured her vision as she tried to check on her friends.

Rose answered she was fine, Alice was screaming but more in shock than pain. A couple of men suddenly surrounded the car, forcing the doors open and checking on the girls.

"I've called 911," someone said, "Don't move them, there could be whiplash or broken backs."

"I think we are fine," Bella replied, trying to step out.

"Stay where you are, the ambulance will be here any second, I can hear the siren. Just let them check you over."

xxx

While the girls were relatively unharmed, the two stowaways in the trunk literally never knew what hit them as bones snapped and shattered and skulls hit metal. It was over quickly for James, he died instantly. Poor Ted was not so lucky, and who knows, had anyone bothered to look inside this blood filled prison, maybe he could have been saved. He lay there barely conscious, unable to cry out or move, all the time listening to the voice of his son, the 'Little Fucker', as Edward unknowingly condemned him to death.

xxxx

Edward stood beside the tow truck driver and looked at the mangled metal where his wife's trunk used to be.

"It could be fixable," the tow truck man suggested, optimistically.

"Fuck it, this is is her second accident in this car, I think it's a sign from the God's this car is not for her. Third time might be really unlucky. I'm not taking the chance. She could have had the children with her."

Charlie scratched his head as he stood beside them. His daughter had just caused the first accident of the month, spoiling their record. He had been aiming for 31 days clear without a traffic bingle.

"Thank God nobody got hurt," Charlie said patting the twisted metal. Dark pools of oil were being hosed away by the fire brigade. The truck had taken a blow to it's engine and gas and oil were pouring out everywhere.

A dark pool of engine oil puddled under Bella's car and Edward frowned. In this light, it almost looked more like a mixture of oil and ruby red blood. It almost looked like the vehicle was bleeding out.

"Actually Rose was screaming her new Manolo's had met a horrible death when she saw the trunk," Edward replied, watching the rainbow colors swirl with the oil and water down the drain in the curb.

"You want me to try and cut it open?" the tow truck driver asked. "See if there's anything salvageable in the trunk?"

"No, fuck it. Take the motherfucker of a car and crush it. I'm not holding a funeral service for a pair of shoes. You'll sign the insurance claim the car's a write-off?" Edward asked his father-in-law.

"I don't ever want to see her behind that wheel again. I agree, it's a write off. Edward, buy her an automatic next time."

"Hallelujah to that."

"I'm heading up to the hospital, but Carlisle says the girls are fine. Want me to bring them home in the cruiser?" Charlie asked."I don't imagine Rose or Alice have been in the back of a police car before?"

"Maybe not Alice," Edward grinned. "Yeah, thanks. I'm following the tow truck, I want to see this car destroyed."

xxx

Edward watched Bella's car be lifted by a massive magnet and dropped inside the crusher and it came out a few minutes later in a nice, neat cube.

Ted looked up in surprise as his Earthly life ended and the gates of Hell opened to welcome him. At least he had someone to begin this new journey with. Young James was there already, his face distorted with terror as he instantly regretted every life he had taken, and the two men screamed as their Fate was decided, and they felt the eternal burn begin.

Edward smiled, and felt comforted that this monster car was gone, and could never harm his Bella again.

She was safe now, strangely, he felt they all were.

"I'm almost tempted to have that metal cube delivered to put in the garden," Edward said to the operator.

"That car didn't look too bad, it could've been fixed," the man replied, surprised such an expensive car had been sacrificed like this.

"Nah," said Edward. "It was a deathtrap in my wife's hands. It was only a matter of time before it took someone's life."

He paid the bill and drove home to his sleeping daughters and gazed down at their little faces, putting his arm around a slightly bruised Bella as she walked to his side.

Something had changed today, Edward felt a load lift from his shoulders. Maybe it was the death of that car that he now knew Bella had struggled to control from the start but it felt like more, it was as if this truly was the beginning of a new and perfect life for him and his wife and family. The world was suddenly a beautiful and peaceful place again.

Edward was just grateful Bella had never had that termination and swept this pair of beauties from their lives. They deserved the best life he and Bella could provide for them. These three girls were his happy ever after.

xxx

Bella answered the phone and listened intently. Much as she loved Edward and the girls, she had always imagined herself with a son, and now Carlisle was telling her about a newborn baby boy surrendered for adoption by his single mother.

"The mother is known to you, Angela Webber, and she wishes for her baby to go to a local couple who will raise him in Forks. She's left the area herself, permanently, off to start her new life with her new husband who is not this baby's father.

Currently we only have one family waiting to adopt in Forks, they have four boys and want a girl though.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, Bella, we don't get many babies surrendered here as you can imagine, and if the mother wants to stay here, usually they request the baby go to a couple in NY or LA , somewhere far away. Let me know what you decide before I call anyone in."

"The girls are so young," Edward said, when she told him, but Bella could see he was seriously considering the idea.

"Yes but in a way, that's good. We will get the bottles and diapers all over and done with at once. Carlisle said he is beautiful, all blue eyes and golden blond hair. Edward, how often will a baby boy become available, especially here, and most relinquishing mothers will never choose us because we have two children of our own already. Carlisle can get us this little boy."

" I promised to give you all the children you wanted, however we had to do it. Tell him yes. We will go collect him as soon as Dad will release him. Now, I have to tell our two angels they are big sisters before they can even sit up alone." He smiled at Bella, he was happy with the idea, only cautious because of the timing.

Bella hugged her husband and kissed him tenderly.

"Thank you, Edward. I really want a little boy, a little Mommy's boy hopefully. The girls will benefit from sharing their lives with a brother. It's going to be wonderful."

Unless their son was to be dressed in lolly pink hand me downs she needed to get in a whole stack of boys clothing, fast. What does one do at times like this? She called Alice.

"We need..."

"another crib and a shitload of blue clothes for your new son," Alice finished for her. "I have bought his Winter clothes, not sure how big he will be by Summer. Do I wait or guess?"

"Wait, I want to choose some of them myself. Alice, I'm so excited, I never thought I would be a mother now we have three children. It's so much more than I ever dreamed. You know I chose Edward above children, I don't even feel worthy of being thrice blessed."

xxx

Carlisle invited his son and daughter in law inside the room off the hospital nursery. Angela Webber had signed the papers, the adoption could take place today. She had sworn the father was unknown and carlisle was surprised that this nice girl had managed to put herself in a situation where that could be possible, but then, he really knew very little about her.

Many people had secret lives nobody else knew about.

Angela had surprised herself when this child was born. She had always assumed she would fall in love with him instantly, and see him as 'her' child alone, nothing to do with the man who had deserted her the moment she told him she was having his child.

It just hadn't happened.

She looked at the infant and all she could see was James.

There was no way she could ever love her baby the way he deserved to be loved, so her only choice was to surrender him and hope whoever adopted him would just see the pretty face and love him.

They would have the advantage of never knowing James.

This baby was a mistake, but she didn't see why she had to pay for the rest of her life. Not when Ben still wanted her, and was happy to agree with whatever she decided.

She wanted a line drawn between her old life and new and now she could go marry her precious Ben without encumbrances. She had walked away without a backward glance.

xxxx

"Here he is, what do you think?" Carlisle asked as he lay the child in Bella's arms.

"Oh God, he looks like a doll. That skin, those eyes, and and the golden curls, he looks like a cherub straight from Heaven. I adore him. Edward?"

"Bella, if you want him, he is yours. What are you going to name him? Let me guess...Jacob."

"Perfect. Jacob James? Why does he look like a James? Don't you think that's the perfect name for him?" she asked.

Edward smiled. Now he didn't feel any guilt about the vasectomy, now she had a little boy to raise as well as their precious girls and he wasn't the grandson of a killer. Life was perfect.

xxxxxx

Alice and Jasper stood outside the church, and Edward handed her her choice of the three infants.

"Um, let's see, I have never held Jacob. I choose him," she decided, holding the precious child carefully.

A rush of visions flew through her head as his tiny hand touched her arm and she gasped.

Then she calmed as she realized all he was showing her was his father's history. His father's life.

His own life would be so very different.

Raised with love and care and cherished as if he was Edward and Bella's own flesh and blood, he would never feel the same horrific urges his biological father had felt.

Had the man raised him himself, it may have been different, but Alice saw instantly that Fate had decided Jacob could be saved from a life of pain and terror, and unlike James, he would not grow up wanting to inflict the same onto others.

Jacob James was going to, instead, follow in Edward's footsteps, and be a man any parents would be proud to call their son.

The End


End file.
